Sri Lanka has administered at least 1,324,513 doses of COVID vaccines so far. As per the statistics of the Health Ministry’s Epidemiology Unit, the first dose of the Oxford AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine has been given to 925,242 individuals and the second dose of the same vaccine has been given to 231,557 persons by Wednesday (12).
The Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine has been given to 150,606 people after it was rolled out among Sri Lankan nationals on May 8. China granted 600,000 doses to Sri Lanka, which are now being administered following World Health Organisation (WHO) approval for the vaccine.
A total of 14,673 individuals have received the first dose of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine. The country received the first batch of Sputnik V vaccine containing 15,000 doses on May 4. Sri Lanka has ordered 13 million doses of this vaccine made by the world famous Gamaleya Institute of Moscow. Sri Lanka recently approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and ordered five million doses. Sri Lanka is one of the few developing to have vaccinated over a million people against COVID-19.
According to medical experts, COVID-19 infections in Sri Lanka have reached a peak now and the highest daily average reported stands at 2,215 new infections.
There have been 133,527 infections and 868 COVID-related fatalities reported in the country since the pandemic began in March last year.
Chief Epidemiologist Dr.Sudath Samaraweera said there is a possibility of a spike in the number of daily reported cases in the next few days. He said the virus that has spread in the country is of the variant (Lineage B.1.1.7) found in the United Kingdom (UK) and the spread of this variant is very fast.
The complications and fatalities are also high.
He says that the UK variant must have entered Sri Lanka from someone who arrived in the country from abroad and the Indian double mutant variant has also entered the country through an Indian national. Dr. Samaraweera stressed the importance of intensifying the quarantine process of all persons arriving from overseas. All visitors to the country are currently subjected to a 14-day quarantine regardless of vaccination status. The Government has also intensified naval patrols and other measures to deter the illegal entry of possibly infected foreigners via the sea routes.
State Minister Ajith Nivard Cabraal meanwhile says the Government has spent Rs.96,012 million for Covid-19 related costs in 2020, and Rs.31,894 million so far in 2021 including for vaccinations..
