Sri Lanka plans to vaccinate one third of it’s population with Sputnik v Russian Vaccine, Chairman of the State Pharmaceutical Corporation, Dr. Prasanna Gunasena, said. Explaining the Covid 19 vaccination schedules Dr. Gunasena further said that Covax facility would provide another one third of vaccine requirement while Sri Lankan government have already closed deals with vaccine manufactures to provide rest of the requirement.
Addressing a press conference held in Government Information department SPC chaiman further said that if at least 60 percent of the people in this country are vaccinated, we will be able to minimize the adverse effects of this disease on the lives of ordinary people. Commenting on the current preparations, Dr. Gunasena says that he believes that about two thirds of the country’s population can be vaccinated by August-September. He describes the plan as follows.
“Why is it important for everyone to understand why we should get vaccinated first? When do we normally live to find solutions to the problems of eating and drinking? We know that at least 60 percent of the country’s population needs to be vaccinated to reach to that point. With the world situation, every vaccine should be taken without relying on one vaccine. Actions have been taken and negotiated with every manufacturing company. After the World Health Organization approved the Astrazeneca vaccine, we spoke with companies such as Sputnik Synopharm Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson. However Serum Institute, Sputnik and Pfizer responded quickly and successfully negotiated with us. Since the Pfizer vaccine has given the approval by WHO it wont be hard to approve in Sri Lanka. Hence registration issues for three vaccines have been resolved.
As we received 600000 doses of Chinese Synopharm vaccine, if it is approved by the World Health Organization next May, we will be working on the world’s four major vaccines.
We originally prepared to take seven million doses of Sputnik V . But increased it to 13 million. That is, we can give the Sputnik vaccine to one third of the country’s population. Accordingly, the Sputnik vaccine is expected to arrive in April this year, 200,000 in May, 800,000 in June and 1.2 July.
From April to June, Pfizer is expected to arrive at 35,000 July, 105,000 in August – September, and 4.8 million in September – December. We are getting money from the World Bank to get these Pfizer vaccines. Meanwhile, one third of the vaccine requirement is received under the World Health Organization’s Covax facility. Accordingly we have to take another third. According to our targets, about 40 percent of the population can be vaccinated by August-September. Until then, for the next three months, we must act with the utmost caution and responsibility to follow health guidelines
