The Health Ministry will begin administering the second dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at 20 centres in the Western Province from today, Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi told the media while receiving the stock of vaccines arrived from Japan at the BIA yesterday. She said this program to vaccinate nearly 500,000 people will continue for eight consecutive days.
The extra doses will be sent to the Kegalle district to supplement the vaccination drive there.
Sri Lanka received a consignment of 728,460 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine donated by Japan under the Covax facility yesterday evening (July 31). The shipment was airlifted from Tokyo.
This vaccine consignment has been made available by Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Tokyo, Sanjiv Gunasekara and the staff of the mission, who made numerous appeals and met many Government bureaucrats and politicians to convince them of the necessity to send the vaccines to Sri Lanka.