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20-30 vaccination to be completed by mid October: Channa Jayasumana

08 Sep 2021

  • Prof. Channa Jayasumana says on track to finish in 6 weeks
  • Says Pfizer to be prioritised for youth with 4 m doses arriving 
  • 30-60 vaccination in final stage
BY Buddhika Samaraweera  The Government aims to complete the Covid-19 vaccination programme for all those between the ages of 20 and 30 years within the next six weeks, the Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals State Minister Prof. Channa Jayasumana announced in Parliament yesterday (7). Sri Lanka has over 3.3 million people in this age category and as at yesterday 39.91% of them, or over 1.3 million, had been provided the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to official vaccination data. The administration of the second doses for this age category has not commenced. Although the vaccination of this group officially began on Monday (6), many of them had been vaccinated prior by virtue of being in the healthcare sector or industries such as apparel, which were provided a certain level of priority in the national vaccination drive. Prof. Jayasumana also said that the type of Covid-19 vaccine given to young people should not be made an issue. “There is no problem with the type of Covid-19 vaccine given to young people. Especially through international studies, it is shown that young people get better immunity through whatever type of vaccine is given against Covid-19. Be it the Chinese Sinopharm or the German-US Pfizer-BioNTech, most probably, there is no considerable difference in the level of immunity achieved when it comes to youths,” he observed. He added that it would be possible to give priority to the youths when administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the future as the country would receive more stocks of the said vaccine. “Currently, we are receiving about 100,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine per week, but in the future, Sri Lanka will receive more of it and about four million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be received in October, after which such groups who wish to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could be given priority,” he elaborated. He said this in response to an oral question raised by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Parliamentarian Premnath C. Dolawatte as to whether there is a possibility to give priority to the youths when administering the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine since it is mostly the youths who are going abroad for purposes such as higher education. Prof. Jayasumana also said in Parliament yesterday that the Government’s initial target of administering Covid-19 vaccines to people over 60 years has now been completed and that the vaccination of people between the ages of 30 and 60 years is also in the final stage now. According to available data, Sri Lanka’s population of people above the age of 30 is nearly 11.5 million and as at yesterday (7), over 9.4 million or 82% of this group had been vaccinated with two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine. According to the data available on the website of the Epidemiology Unit, Sri Lanka, as of 8.30 p.m. on 6 September 2021, has administered a total of 22,237,998 doses of Covid-19 vaccines including 17,672,265 doses of Sinopharm, 2,292,873 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca, 202,163 doses of the Russian Sputnik V, 592,691 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and 1,478,006 doses of the US Moderna Covid-19 vaccines.  


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