COLOMBO – The first batch of coronavirus vaccines provided free by the government of India will reach the island on Wednesday (27) and vaccination will begin on Thursday (28), President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said.
The Presidential Secretariat quoted him as announcing during a meeting in the Kalutara district that the vaccination will start with frontline health and military personnel, and that the government is also planning to expedite imports of vaccines from China and Russia as well.
Sri Lanka’s National Medical Regulatory Authority (NMRA) on Friday (22) approved the Astra-Zeneca vaccine for use amid warnings from doctors that front-line health workers should be quickly inoculated to stop the system from collapsing.
Serum Institute of India is producing Covishield, the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine where some supplies of which is being given free to seven countries in South Asia. India also produces Covaxin, which is made by Bharat Biotech.
Minister for Pharmaceutical Production and Regulation Channa Jayasumana said the British vaccine has been approved for emergency use, the first in Sri Lanka, while several other candidates are in the pipeline at the (NMRA).
“Hundreds of health care workers have tested positive in several hospitals. When you have one positive case, about 10 health workers will need to be sent to quarantine. System is collapsing day by day,” Dr. Haritha Aluthge from the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) said, adding that the vaccines need to be given quickly to keep the health workers’ morals up.
After two months during which no community cases were reported, a random test on a factory worker in October led to the detection of a new cluster. At about the same time, the owner of an eatery near the country’s main fish market alerted authorities about a rise in the sale of paracetamol, an indication people were suffering from fevers. Testing of fish vendors detected a second cluster.
In over three months since, Sri Lanka has reported more than 58,000 new patients and 283 deaths. Between 500 to 900 new cases are being reported daily.
-economynext.com/ENCL