The administration of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for persons awaiting the AstraZeneca second dose was halted yesterday after health authorities were informed the country will receive a sufficient number of AstraZeneca doses by the third week of July.

According to Health Services Deputy Director-General Dr. Hemantha Herath, the Pfizer doses will be administered to high-risk groups and the relevant information will be issued by the Director-General of Health Services in the coming days.

“We began the administration of the Pfizer vaccine due to the uncertainty regarding the procurement of sufficient doses for the AstraZeneca second dose. However, the World Health Organization has informed us that we will receive sufficient doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by the third week of July,” Dr. Herath said.

The Pfizer vaccine was administered to 2,171 persons over the age of 55 in Colombo on Wednesday.

In addition to this, 80 persons received the second dose of AstraZeneca on Wednesday.

In total, the first dose of AstraZeneca has been administered to 925,242 persons and the second dose to 384,374 persons.

The Epidemiology Unit states that 151,750 persons received the first dose of Sinopharm on Wednesday and 35,893 persons received the second dose of the vaccine on Wednesday.

The first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to 2,356,130 persons and the second dose to 921,702 persons.

According to the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka, a shipment of two million doses of Sinopharm is due to reach Sri Lanka by 11 July.

Twenty-four persons received the second dose of the Sputnik V vaccine on Wednesday. As of Wednesday, 114,795 persons had received the first dose of Sputnik V and 14,452 persons had received the second dose of the vaccine.

In total, 3,396,167 persons have received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 1,322,699 persons have received both doses.

1,270 COVID-19 patients detected

40 COVID-19 deaths raise fatalities to 3,391