The National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) has approved the sinopharm vaccine for emergency use in Sri Lanka.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had recently instructed officials to expedite the process to approve the emergency use of sinopharm in Sri Lanka.
China had been awaiting clearance from Sri Lanka to gift 600,000 coronavirus vaccines.
Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to China, Dr. Palitha Kohona had said this week that the Embassy had talks with two major vaccine manufacturers in China.“Both have been very receptive to our request to make the Chinese vaccines available to Sri Lanka,” Dr. Kohona said.
He said that, eventually the Chinese Government offered 300,000 vaccines as a gift to Sri Lanka.
Dr. Palitha Kohona said that China has now offered another 300,000 vaccines to Sri Lanka.
The diplomat said that China’s offer had been conveyed to the Sri Lankan authorities in Colombo. (Colombo Gazette)