The largest consignment of COVID-19 vaccine donation, consisting of 1.6 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, arrived in Sri Lanka today.
The vaccines, which are the largest donation to be received by Sri Lanka thus far, arrived on two flights, consisting of 1 million and 600,000 doses each.
The flights had landed at the Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake at 05.30 am today.
Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong officially handed over the vaccine consignment to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the Presidential Secretariat this morning.
The total number of Sinopharm vaccine doses received by Sri Lanka thus far has increased to 10.7 million with the arrival of the latest consignment.
A record 437,878 COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the country yesterday, making it the highest number of vaccines to be provided in a single day.
According to the Health Ministry, 180 Sri Lankans received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioN-Tech vaccine, bringing total Pfizer jabs in the country so far to 114,075.
The first and second doses of the Chinese made Sinopharm vaccine were given to 356,628 and 55,722 respectively. A total of 5,945,237 people have received the first dose so far while 1,482,305 have received the second dose.
The US-made Moderna was administered to 25,420, bringing total Moderna first dose jabs to 696,003.
Due to a shortage in the Russian Sputnik V jab, Sri Lanka’s health officials have reportedly suspended its rollout until further notice. So far 159,081 have received the first dose of Sputnik V, while 14,503 have received the second.
However, over half a million Sri Lankans still await the second dose of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine.
Out of a total 925,242 first dose recipients, only 385,885 have had the second jab so far, while 539,357 Sri Lankans have yet to receive the second jab of AstraZeneca.
Experts say people who have received only one dose of a vaccine are particularly vulnerable to the fast-spreading Delta variant of the virus. A total of 66 cases of the Delta variant have been confirmed in Sri Lanka so far.
Despite Sri Lanka being promised 1.4 million doses of AstraZeneca by the Japanese Government to be delivered through the COVAX facility last week, there is no confirmation, as of today, on when the consignment may be expected. (NewsWire)