By Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera   

Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa yesterday alleged that the government was planning to provide the China’s Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine, which was not approved by the National Drug Regulatory Authority (NDRA), as the second jab to those who were vaccinated with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.   

He told Parliament that there was no sufficient stock of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in the country to vaccinate 22 million people and asked whether the government had allocated funds to purchase the AstraZeneca vaccine.   

He inquired the State Minister of Finance Ajith Nivard Cabraal if the government would take steps to provide both jabs with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to 22 million of people.   
“We need 44 million of AstraZeneca jabs to vaccinate 22 million of people with two jabs.The government is not in a position to vaccinate all the people with AstraZeneca vaccine. The government is planning to provide the second jab with China’s Sinopharm which is not registered with the NDRA and ten Consultants had ruled out that the Sinopharm vaccine was not suitable,” he said.    State Minister Cabraal said the government was doing what was best for the people adding that this was a people-sensitive government.   
“There are 100 countries which have been unable to provide a single vaccine so far. We are providing about 100,000 jabs per day,” he said.     

• There are 100 countries which have been unable to provide a single vaccine so far