6 February 2021 12:03 am
By Sheain Fernandopulle
There is a mechanism in place to vaccinate all Sri Lankans within three months and to become the first country in the world to complete that task, Secretary to State Ministry of Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID-19 Disease Control Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva said yesterday.
He told Daily Mirror the Government had identified locations to set up 4,000 centres where the general public could be vaccinated.
“With this system in place, we hope that Sri Lanka will be able to complete the vaccination programme within three months and be named as the first State to do so.
The Secretary underlined that this would depend on the availability of vaccines into Sri Lanka because there is a higher demand for vaccines but less supply. “We have already placed an order for 18 million of Covishield vaccine from India. Apart from that, we have had talks with Russia and China to bring vaccines. Also, we have taken steps to allocate two million of Pfizer vaccines,” Dr. de Silva said. He also said that if mass inoculation was completed, it would reduce the huge amount of money that had to be spent on PCR testing. “We spend a sum of Rs.100 million per day for PCR testing,” he added.