By Saman Indrajith

Around 120,000 people in Kandy and adjacent areas who had received the first dose of Sputnik V vaccine are in quandary as the government cannot procure the vaccine to give the booster doses to them, says the main Opposition SJB.

Addressing the media at the Opposition Leader’s Office in Colombo, Chief Opposition Whip and SJB Kandy District MP Lakshman Kiriella said that as at the end of May this year, the government had inoculated around 150,000 people with the first dose of Sputnik V vaccine. “Thereafter, they gave a second dose to 15,000. The government is starting to vaccinate another batch of 15,000 persons with the second dose of the Sputnik V vaccine today. So, we have an assurance that 30,000 people there will get their second dose of the vaccine. There is a balance of 120,000 people who got the first jab. The problem is that the government would not be able to get the second dose for them as nowhere in the world the second dose of Sputnik V is produced. Countries that had produced the vaccine no longer produce the second dose of Sputnik V. Neither Russia nor India is producing them any longer. It is clear now that the government knew of this situation when they gave the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine to people in Kandy. That was why they collected signatures of people to a document so that they cannot demand the second dose of the vaccine. The registration and certification documents given for filling and signing by the public in Kandy stated in Sinhala: ‘I am agreeable even to take only the first dose of Sputnik V vaccine. Only those who had signed and agreed had been given the first dose. So the government knowingly put these people in jeopardy and harm’s way. Now people demand to know when they would get the second jab and what would happen to them if the government is not able to give the second dose of the vaccine. When the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine was given it was said that the second dose would be given in 21 days. Thereafter the government got its experts to tell people that the first dose would be effective for three months. We demand to know from the government what it is going to do with those 120,000 people. What alternative does it have if it cannot procure the second dose for them,” queried the chief opposition whip.

SJB National List MP Mayantha Dissanayake also addressed the press.