Sri Lanka looking for alternatives as sourcing AstraZeneca is an issue

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka is currently facing issues with sourcing the AstraZeneca vaccine, especially from the Serum Institute in India.

"Serum cannot keep up with the demand due to rising COVID numbers in India and because their factory was also damaged in a fire," said Joint Cabinet Spokesperson Dr. Ramesh Pathirana on Tuesday (25) adding, therefore, Sri Lanka is looking at alternate vaccines for its citizens.

"We are looking at Sinopharm as the government's priority is to vaccine more people at the earliest. We are also looking at the Russian Sputnik vaccine," the Minister told reporters.

Sri Lanka still awaiting 600,000 AstraZeneca COVISHIELD doses to be administered as the second dose for Sri Lankans who already received the first jab, he said.

Only 300,000 Sri Lankans were given the second dose while almost 01 million Sri Lankans were given the first dose of the vaccine.

Joint-Cabinet Spokesperson Minister Udaya Gammanpila told reporters that the Government is in talks with countries that possess excess doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to meet the 600,000 shortage in Sri Lanka.