Courtesy Adaderana

It is expected to vaccinate the workforce between the ages 30 and 60 years against the COVID-19 pandemic from March this year, says State Minister Dr. Sudarshani Fernandopulle.

The State Minister of Primary Health Care, Epidemics, and COVID Disease Control said that 4,000 centers have been planned to be utilized for this task.

She added that these centers will administer a total of 300 vaccinations each, with 2,000 centers in operation per day.

As per Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 figures, 10 percent of the total number of confirmed positive cases is above the age of 60; however, the majority belong to the age group between 30 – 60 years.

Meanwhile, the vaccination of high-risk groups against COVID-19 will commence after vaccinating the health workers, said Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva, Secretary to the State Ministry of Primary Health Care, Epidemics, and COVID Disease Control.

Epidemiologist at the Colombo Municipal Council, Dr. Dinuka Guruge stated that all health workers with the council limits have been given the COVID-19 vaccine.

As per the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry, a total of 161,773 individuals have been given the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine so far since the commencement of the COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 29.

On February 03, the State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) has sent the purchase order for another 18 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccines manufactured by India.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has agreed to provide Sri Lanka with 20 percent of the vaccine requirement to vaccinate 4.2 million of the population.

On the 28th of January, a consignment of 500,000 Covishield vaccines was donated to Sri Lanka by the Indian Government under its Vaccine Maitri” (Vaccine Friendship) initiative, following a request made by the President to Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi.

Accordingly, Sri Lanka kicked off its inoculation drive on the 29th of January. More than 100,000 persons have been administered the vaccine so far. Under the first phase, Sri Lanka expects to vaccinate some 150,000 health workers, 120,000 members of Tri-Forces, Police, and security forces who are at the frontline of COVID-19 prevention operations, on a priority basis.

Covishield is the name for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in India. The shots developed by UK-based drugmaker AstraZeneca and Oxford University are being mass-produced at India’s Serum Institute – the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer.

The vaccine, which is known as Covishield, is developed from a weakened version of a common cold virus (known as an adenovirus) from chimpanzees. This was approved for emergency use by the Government of Sri Lanka last month