President instructs officials to expedite vaccine imports, while expanding inoculation drive

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday instructed health ministry officials to expedite the import of COVID-19 vaccines, while expanding the vaccination drive. He gave the directive when the Committee on COVID-19 met yesterday at the Presidential Secretariat.

“We must vaccinate as many people as possible in the shortest time,” President Rajapaksa said.

The President said that special attention needed to be paid to the Western Province where most cases were reported.

“We have received Sputnik-V vaccine. We have 600,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine. 55 million people in 51 countries, apart from China, have been vaccinated with Sinopharm. We should talk to health officials in these countries,” he said.

The President added that they were talking to several countries that have a surplus of AstraZeneca vaccines to get the jabs necessary to vaccinate all who had taken one dose of the vaccine.

Members of the Committee informed the President that they were taking swift action to prevent the spread of COVID-19, while ensuring that the economy ran smoothly.