Sri Lanka nixes China's Sinopharm vaccines, will use India-made jabs for mass inoculation

Sri Lanka has put the Chinese manufactured COVID-19 vaccine on hold and will use vaccine shots manufactured by the Serum Institute of India for its ambitious inoculation drive, ANI reported citing Cabinet co-spokesman Dr Ramesh Pathirana. The country kick-started its vaccination drive last month, administering vaccine shots on frontline workers. Starting March, the island is set to extend inoculation to the general public, prioritizing people over 60 years of age.

On February 26, Pathirana asserted that authorities have opted for the Indian manufactured Astrazeneca/Oxford vaccine jabs to vaccinate 14 million people. He stressed that the Chinese vaccine manufacturer Sinopharm has still not completed phase 3 of its vaccine clinical trials. Dr Pathirana further said that the complete dossier pertaining to the registration of the Chinese vaccine has also not yet been received.

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"For the time being, we need to go with the AstraZeneca vaccine. The moment we receive full documentation from the Chinese manufacturer we can consider registering it," Pathirana was quoted as saying by ANI. 

Placed orders for 10 million shots 

Sri Lanka on Thursday, February 25 received 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines ordered from India. With Chinese and Russian vaccines still not approved by the country's regulators, it has opted to use Indian made vaccine shots. The government has placed an order for 10 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India at a cost of USD 52.5 million and a further 3.5 million doses directly from AstraZeneca Institute of UK under the COVAX programme. Health officials here said the next batch of the Indian order would be coming in March.

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Sri Lanka began its vaccination drives with 5 lakh vaccine doses gifted by India. Sharing images of the drive that began at the Army Hospital in Narahenpita, Indian Commission in Sri Lanka said that the jabs were administered on health workers in various hospitals across Colombo after the official launch. Several dignitaries including State Minister of Primary Health Services, Pandemics and Covid Prevention, Dr Sudarshini Fernandopulle, and India High Commissioner Gopal Baglay were present at the event.  As per official records, the country has reported 82,430 COVID-19  cases and  459  deaths as of now. 

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Image: AP