Health authorities call on public to receive booster shots soon

• Health Services DDG warns it will be difficult to eradicate COVID-19 if people refuse vaccination 
• 37,196 persons vaccinated against COVID-19

Health Services Deputy Director General Dr. Hemantha Herath yesterday said called on the public to receive the booster shot against COVID-19 to mitigate the spread of the virus.

Pointing out that majority of the people are not inclined to receive the booster dose, he claimed this is due to certain misconceptions created by society and information published by media outlets. At a point where some countries are focusing to administer a fourth dose to eradicate COVID-19 from their economies, Dr. Herath said it was disappointing to see that only 3.3 million double vaccinated people have received the booster shot so far.

“If people continue to refuse to undergo the proper vaccination process, eradicating COVID-19 from the country will be very difficult,” he stressed.

COVID-19 vaccines were administered to 24,851 persons on Sunday and Our World in Data states that 64.33% of the country’s population is now fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to 74.34% of the population.

According to the Epidemiology Unit, 94.5% of the population over 20 years has received both vaccine doses.

The first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to 15,982,166 persons and 13,829,473 persons have received the second dose as well.

The booster dose has been administered to 3,391,472 persons. This includes 24,355 persons vaccinated on Sunday.

The Epidemiology Unit states that the first dose of Pfizer was administered to 75 persons on Sunday, raising the total number of persons to have received the first dose of the vaccine to 1,569,562. A total of 29 persons received the second dose of Pfizer on Sunday and a total of 472,907 persons have received the second dose to date.

The first dose of Sinopharm has been administered to 11,969,062 persons and the second dose has been administered to 10,994,800 persons. On Sunday, 68 persons received the first dose of Sinopharm and 324 persons received the second dose.

The first dose of AstraZeneca has been administered to 1,479,631 persons and 1,418,593 persons have received the second dose of the vaccine.

According to the Epidemiology Unit, 804,801 persons have received the first dose of Moderna and 787,361 persons have received the second dose of the vaccine.

The first dose of Sputnik V has been administered to 159,110 persons and 155,812 persons have received the second dose as well.