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SL completes Covid vaccine procurement

09 Jan 2022

  • SPC announces all required doses received
 By Buddhika Samaraweera Sri Lanka has completed the procurement of Covid vaccines which began in January last year, as it has received the total number of Covid-19 vaccine doses and the total number of booster Covid-19 vaccine doses required by yesterday (9), according to the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC). In a media statement, SPC Chairman Dr. Prasanna Gunasena said that on 18 January 2021, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa entrusted the SPC with the task of importing the Covid-19 vaccines required for the country. He said that the SPC had procured all the Covid-19 vaccines required by the country in less than a year. He stated that 2,865,424 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca, 1,500,000 doses of Moderna, 195,000 doses of Sputnik V, 26,000,000 doses of Sinopharm, and 18,000,000 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines have been imported under the Covid-19 vaccination programme in the country. “We received 6.8 million doses of the vaccines as donations. The largest donations came from the Chinese Government while the rest was from the Japanese, US, and Indian Governments, and the World Health Organisation (WHO). Sri Lanka spent between $ 5 and $ 7.5 per dose when purchasing the vaccines,” he said. Dr. Gunasena noted that the majority of imported vaccines are the Pfizer and Sinophram vaccines. The entire cost of the Pfizer vaccines was paid for with a loan from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) paid for the Sinophram vaccines. We entered into anti-corruption and anti-bribery agreements with these two banks and these funds were approved after they had thoroughly examined our procurement process and completed the audit of all our operations, he added. He said that the entire process of purchasing these vaccines was carried out in a transparent manner in accordance with international standards and that the vaccination programme in Sri Lanka is now at the forefront (among the top 10 countries) in the world. Dr. Gunasena added that all vaccines, except the Sputnik V vaccine, were purchased directly from the companies and manufacturers approved by the WHO. He said that in addition, experts from the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) approved the vaccines only after examining all the data. However, he said that due to various rumours, those who were earlier waiting in the queues to get the vaccine are hiding today, adding that it was unfortunate and dangerous for the people to refuse to take the booster dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Therefore, there is a serious responsibility for the medical experts to motivate the public to obtain the booster Covid-19 vaccine dose, he said. The data available at the Epidemiology Unit, as of last Saturday (8), revealed that a total of 29,867,611 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Sri Lanka, including 2,898,224 doses of the Covishield vaccine, 22,994,576 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, 314,922 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, 2,067,727 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and 1,592,162 doses of the Moderna vaccine. In addition, 4,319,348 Pfizer doses have been administered as booster doses. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health recently pointed out that it is important for everyone eligible to be vaccinated against Covid-19 on time as there is a risk of new Covid-19 variants emerging if the spread of the Covid-19 Omicron variant increases. Speaking at a media briefing last week, Ministry of Health Communications Director, Public Health Services Deputy Director General, and Disaster Preparedness and Response Division Head Dr. Hemantha Herath said: “The more a virus spreads, the more it replicates. When the virus replicates in that way, new variants are more likely to emerge.” He also said that the Covid-19 vaccines would help prevent the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, including the Omicron variant, in the country. He added that if the spread of Covid-19 is prevented, the emergence of new Covid-19 variants can also be avoided. “Currently, those who are eligible for the second Covid-19 vaccine should take it immediately, and those who are eligible for the booster dose should take it as soon as possible, thereby preventing the spread of Covid-19, including the Omicron variant,” Dr. Herath noted.


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