Over 28 percent of the target group had been given the Pfizer-BioNTech booster dose by Friday, Director, Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry, Dr. Samitha Ginige said.
He said the third dose of a Covid-19 vaccine is intended to be given to 14.5 million people over 20 years to boost their immunity to the deadly virus and of this 4.2 million have already received it. Dr. Ginige said Sri Lanka has imported 48.9 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines and of this 40.4 million was procured by the Government spending millions of US dollars.
The remaining 8.4 million doses were received as donations through the UN’s Covax facility and the goodwill of friendly countries including India, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. “Of the 48.9 million doses, 34 million have already been administered to the people covering two doses to almost 65 percent of the entire population of the country,” Dr. Ginige said.
According to him, 98 percent of those over 60 have been given the first dose and 85 percent have received both doses. The successful vaccine coverage has been the main reason for Sri Lanka’s impressive record in fighting the pandemic and maintaining a low fatality rate, he said.
Epidemiology Unit data shows that by January 7, 2022, Sri Lanka had received 26 million doses of Sinopharm, 18.4 million doses of Pfizer, 2.7 million doses of Astrazeneca, 1.5 million doses of Moderna and Sputnik V vaccine - 165,000 doses. The Epidemiology unit had been coordinating the distribution of the vaccines islandwide which needs storage at different temperatures. - MF