Vaccination drive begins today

… first round halted on 6 April

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Senior Presidential Advisor and head of Covid-19 vaccination project, Lalith Weeratunga said yesterday (27) that in spite of the fresh outbreak of a more virulent variant of the coronavirus  in the country, the government was confident of carrying out the second round of immunisation using the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine as scheduled.

Weeratunga, who also represents the Covid-19 Task Force said so when The Island sought an explanation as regards the growing Opposition accusations regarding the near collapse of the battle against the epidemic. Army Chief Gen. Shavendra Silva heads the Covid Task Force.

 “Let us refrain from playing politics with unprecedented health emergency or seeking political advantage at the expense of overall national effort,” Weeratunga said, assuring the government’s unwavering commitment to bringing the situation under control.

Weeratunga said that the second round of the vaccination programme would begin on Wednesday (28).

Responding to another query, Weeratunga said that at the time Sri Lanka launched the vaccination programme on January 29, 2021 after receiving the first consignment from India on the previous day, the manufacturer-Serum Institute of Pune, Maharashtra advised that the second jab should be administered after four weeks. Subsequently, the manufacturer asserted that the second job should be administered between 12 to 16 weeks, Weeratunga said.

 Admitting the severe difficulties caused by the spike in Covid-19 cases in the immediate aftermath of the Sinhala and Tamil New Year, Weeratunga emphasized the government wouldn’t try to justify the disruption of the vaccination programme under any circumstances.

 Of course, the ongoing crisis in India prompted Sri Lanka to explore ways and means of securing the required doses from other sources, Weeratunga said, adding that the second round gets underway with the country having six weeks supply in its hands.

 State Minister of Primary Health Care, Epidemics and Covid Disease Control Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle yesterday told The Island that the current challenge was two-fold with the government having to undertake the second vaccination round while trying to contain the fresh outbreak.

Acknowledging a rapid increase in the numbers affected, Dr. Fernandopulle said now younger people had been infected with complications needing high flow oxygen.

 Emphasizing the heavy responsibility on all stakeholders, Dr. Fernandopulle said the public support was required to reduce what she called patient load.

 The State Minister said that the country was paying a price for lowering the guard during the festive reason.

 According to Dr. Fernandopulle, the government stopped the first round on April 6 in the wake of the total number of recipients reaching 927,000.

 Commenting on the AstraZeneca received in three separate consignments since the arrival of the first lot on January 28, Dr. Fernandopulle said altogether Sri Lanka received 1,264,000. Of them, India donated 500,000 doses, Sri Lanka purchased 500,000 and bought another 264,000 through high profile Covax project-the global mechanism for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.

 In terms of the Covax initiative, AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and the Serum Institute of India have so far supplied vaccines to over 100 countries funded through the ‘Gavi Covax Advance Market Commitment.’

 Dr. Fernandopulle said that the current crisis was believed to have been caused by a new variant. Both State Minister Fernandopulle and Vaccination Chief Weeratunga said that as in the first round the health workers and armed forces would receive priority.

 Indian diplomatic sources told The Island that as far as the supply of AstraZeneca to Sri Lanka was concerned the situation remained the same with the last delivery in March in line with the Covax facility. Sources said that Sri Lanka was able to advance the first phase of the vaccination programme due to the early delivery made by the Serum Institute, sources said.

Senior Presidential Advisor Weeratunga also explained the government decision to acquire a substantial stock of Russia Sputnik V vaccine as part of the overall vaccination programme. According to him, the Russian deliveries would commence next week with Sri Lanka receiving 200,000 doses. Weeratunga said that altogether, the government would purchase 13 mn doses of Sputnik V.

 The Russian diplomatic sources told The Island yesterday that the Russian Direct Investment Fund was handling the transaction.

Sri Lanka on March 31 received 600,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine jointly developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products. Sri Lanka awaits WHO approval for the Chinese Vaccine to give it to locals, though Chinese nationals working in Sri Lanka were inoculated with it on a voluntary basis no sooner it was airlifted to the country by the national carrier SriLankan.

Health Secretary Maj. Gen. Dr. Sanjeewa Munasinghe, the Chief Epidemiologist and Director General Health Services Dr Asela Gunawardena couldn’t be reached yesterday for comments as regards the developing situation.