• Chinese Embassy claims SL at No. 1
• Second as per global stats provider
• Measurement on daily doses administered per 100 people
• Military vaccination centres the reason? 

BY Buddhika Samaraweera

The Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka tweeted yesterday (18) that Sri Lanka is the global leader in vaccination speed, in terms of daily doses administered per 100 people. 

In the Twitter message, the Embassy had also stated that within the next two to three weeks, another 5.6 million doses of China’s Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine would arrive in the country, in three batches. 

The Embassy cited the global statistics website “Our World in Data” to back up its claim. However, when The Morning did its own research on the same site, Sri Lanka was listed at No. 2 on the global chart, behind Ecuador, in terms of daily doses administered per 100 people. 

A vaccination drive against Covid-19 commenced in hospitals run by the tri-forces on 4 July and has continued since, with many commenting that the speed of vaccination at these centres has been significantly higher than that of health sector-run vaccination centres. The vaccination programme by the military was launched after receiving one million doses of Chinese Sinopharm vaccines. 

Meanwhile, the Government Medical Officers’ Association (GMOA) recently alleged that the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses supplied to the vaccination centres operated by the health sector has been significantly reduced by health authorities, as a higher number of doses are being channelled to the new vaccination centres run by the tri-forces.

Responding to the allegation made by the GMOA, State Ministry of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Secretary Dr. S.K. Ratnayake denied that there is a conscious or intentional reduction in the vaccine doses being supplied to the health sector-run vaccination centres. However, he commended the tri-forces for running an efficient vaccination programme, and compared it favourably to those run by the health sector.

According to the Epidemiology Unit, as of 8:30 p.m. on 17 July 2021, a total of 7,246,983 Covid-19 vaccine doses had been administered in Sri Lanka. These included 1,311,127 doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine, 5,717,271 doses of Sinopharm vaccine, 171,832 doses of Sputnik V vaccine, and 46,753 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. In addition, a total of 5,300 doses of Sinopharm vaccine doses had been given to Chinese nationals in Sri Lanka for development activities.

Meanwhile, the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) on 16 July approved the use of the Chinese-made Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka received another two million doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China on 11 July 2021, bringing the total of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines received by the country since March 2021 to 7.1 million.