• SPC Chairman says country has secured 32 m doses despite requirement being only 29 m 
• 500,000 doses of Sinopharm donated by China expected tomorrow
• 2.5 m vaccines to be administered during first 2 weeks of June
• Requests that Level 3 restrictions are maintained until second week of June 

By Shailendree Wickrama Additiya

The State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) has confirmed the securing of 32 million doses of different COVID vaccines, 2.5 million of which will be administered between tomorrow and first two weeks of June.

“Two million COVID-19 vaccines will be administered during the first two weeks of June,” SPC Chairman and member of the Presidential Task Force for National Deployment and Vaccination Plan for COVID-19 Dr. Prasanna Gunasena said on Friday, asking that Level 3 restrictions are maintained until such time.

This would act as a solution to the work carried out by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, he said when the Task Force met on Friday to review COVID-19 control measures.

“According to the Epidemiology Unit, our country needs 29 million vaccine doses to vaccinate persons over the age of 20. As of now, we have secured 14 million doses of Sinopharm, 13 million doses of Sputnik V, and 5 million doses of Pfizer, amounting to 32 million doses that will reach Sri Lanka by 31 December,” Dr. Gunasena said.

He added that the country has secured three million doses more than its requirement.

The Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka yesterday tweeted that 500,000 doses of Sinopharm and 502,400 syringes have been packed and delivered to the Beijing International Airport. The paperwork will be completed in the coming hours and the doses are expected to arrive in Sri Lanka by Tuesday.

The 500,000 doses of Sinopharm will be the second donation from China, with the country previously donating 600,000 doses of Sinopharm.

By Saturday, the first dose of Sinopharm had been administered to 511,905 persons and 2,435 persons had received the second dose as well. According to the Epidemiology Unit, 10,412 persons received the first dose on Saturday.

The second dose of AstraZeneca was administered to 5,600 persons on Saturday and a total of 325,796 persons have received both doses of the vaccine. The total number of persons to receive the first dose of AstraZeneca is 925,242.

The first dose of Sputnik V was administered to 43 persons on Saturday, bringing the total number of persons to receive the vaccine to 14,984.

The Epidemiology Unit states that 1,452,131 persons have received the first dose of the AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, and Sputnik V vaccines and 328,231 persons have received the second dose.

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