Chinese vaccines to be handed over to SL in one week

The dispatch of 600,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine will be handed over to the Sri Lankan side in Beijing in one week’s time, to be delivered here for roll-out, a spokesman for the Chinese embassy said.

The spokesman said it was a donation, and therefore the Chinese side had no authority to request the Sri Lankan Government to prioritise the categories of people to receive the jabs. However, he said the Sri Lankan Government offered to vaccinate a few thousand Chinese nationals living in the country.

He said the Chinese vaccines were in use in 60 countries.

“In China, more than 75 million people have been vaccinated now,” he said.

The spokesman said all relevant documents related to the Phase 3 trials on the Sinopharm vaccine had been submitted to the Sri Lankan authorities weeks ago.

He said the same papers had been sent to the WHO and many other countries.

“Hundreds of millions of people received vaccines safely. The WHO has also received and proceeded. It is going to approve very soon. The delay is due to too many applications pending,” he said. (Kelum Bandara)