COLOMBO – Sri Lanka will use the National Election Commission electoral registry to select people for vaccination, but if people actually want to go ahead with it, vaccination is voluntary.
Lalith Weeratunga Chief Advisor to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said the general public will be selected for the vaccination program according to the Grama Niladhari and Ministry of Health registry.
According to the vaccination program priority list, first, the frontline health workers will be vaccinated and then the armed forces personnel deployed in the quarantine centres. Thirdly, people above the ages of 60 and people with non-communicable diseases will be vaccinated.
Weeratunga, who heads the Presidential Task Force appointed to oversee Sri Lanka’s vaccination drive, said there are some 150,000 health workers and 115,000 to 120,000 police and security forces personnel who have to be vaccinated as a priority.
However, he said vaccination is entirely voluntary.
He also urged the public to check and update electorate registry, noting that in the near future they will put in place methods to update it.
Answering questions on how Grama Niladharis would know if a person has non-communicable diseases or not, Susi Perera, Acting Deputy General of Public Health Services said everyone above the ages of 60 are encouraged to come as an educational program and then if they want to get vaccinated they can, only if they volunteer.
And people above the age of 50s with non-communicable diseases are also encouraged to take part.
She said most people in Sri Lanka are not aware if they actually have an underlying condition or not.
Samita Ginige, Ministry of Health, Specialist in Communicable diseases said the vaccination centres will be equipped with all facilities to do check-ups to determine if the participants have any non-communicable diseases.
-economynext.com