Chinese vaccine arriving today

By Rathindra Kuruwita

The first batch of Sinopharm vaccines, donated by China, would arrive in Sri Lanka today (31), but it would only be administered to Chinese nationals living in Sri Lanka, Co-Cabinet spokesman and Minister of Plantation, Dr. Ramesh Pathirana said yesterday.

 He said: “The results of clinical trials of the vaccine are in Chinese and they are being translated into English. Once that is done many believe the WHO will approve the vaccine and once that happens Sri Lankans too can get the Chinese vaccine”.

 According to Minister Pathirana 855,000 people have so far received the AstraZeneca vaccine. Sri Lanka still has over 400, 000 doses left for booster shots. More AstraZeneca vaccine doses will arrive in April and May.

 The Cabinet had recently approved the purchase of seven million doses of Russian Sputnik – V vaccine at a cost of USD 69.6 million, Dr. Pathirana said.

He added that with those quantities, 14 million Sri Lankans could be vaccinated.