Health Ministry officials cause delays in bringing Covid vaccine to SL: AMS

While expressing that vaccination is the best available solution that Sri Lanka has at present to face Covid-19, the Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) alerted the Government of alleged delays caused by Health Ministry officials in the endeavour to bring the vaccine to Sri Lanka.

AMS President Dr L. A Ranasinghe said that certain officials in the Ministry of health had track records for causing ‘delays’ in many tasks, they were assigned to in the past

“There is a strong justification to use the vaccines currently approved in the rest of the world, in our country too as soon as possible. However it is quite misleading to state that they are still in the experimental stage,” he said.

“No time should be wasted to distract the effort to bring the vaccine with myths or unproven theories. The widely used vaccines that were born through extremely efficient and highly coordinated use of scientific research have also gone through stringent regulatory approvals from credible agencies which include the WHO. Further, they will have to be approved by the National Medicines Regulatory Authority too before its used in Sri Lanka,” Dr Ranasinghe emphasised.

He also re-iterated the need for a well-coordinated and an efficient mechanism to speed up the process of securing the vaccine/s at this hour of need.

“We are aware of the global competition for securing the doses they need. It could be disastrous to entrust the total responsibility with regard to securing this to individuals or officials who function at snail pace. We wish to alert authorities that some may adopt delaying tactics deliberately for various reasons,” Dr Ranasinghe said.

“The AMS wishes to propose that we resort to a multi-pronged effort to reach success fast. It should include prompt and efficient response in obtaining the free quota of vaccines offered for 20% of our population through the COVAX facility, negotiating with various sources and countries to obtain or buy more doses to cover the balance population, and permitting and facilitating the private sector also to import, distribute and vaccinate, with state monitoring to help effective coverage of the population who could afford the vaccine privately,” he underlined.

Dr Ranasinghe said the AMS would extend its maximum support to make this effort a grand success. (Sheain Fernandopulle)