Another stock of one million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine arrived in Sri Lanka today.
State Minister Channa Jayasumana said the consignment arrived on a special Sri Lankan Airlines flight from Beijing.
With the arrival of the latest consignment, Sri Lanka has received over 4 million doses of the Chinese manufactured vaccine to date.
The Chinese Government initially provided 600,000 doses of the vaccine as a donation to Sri Lanka.
The vaccine was thereafter administered first to Chinese nationals residing in Sri Lanka, due to a delay in the World Health Organization approving it for emergency use in other countries, apart from China.
Upon receiving the WHO’s approval, the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) approved the administration of the vaccine to citizens of Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, the highest number of vaccinations administered in a single day during the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive in Sri Lanka was reported on Wednesday (30).
State Minister Professor Channa Jayasumana said a record 170, 995 doses of the Chinese manufactured Sinopharm vaccine were administered.
He said 91, 759 doses of Sinopharm were provided as the 1st dose, while 79, 236 doses were administered as the 2nd jab.
A total of 1, 749, 500 people have been inoculated with the Sinopharm vaccine as the 1st dose and 684,352 people have received it as the 2nd dose in Sri Lanka to date. (NewsWire)