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Vaccination of children above 12 to kick off this Friday: Prof. Jayasumana

22 Sep 2021 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}      

  • The Covid situation in the country was returning to a healthy position and added that there was a decrease in oxygen dependent patients at the moment

By Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera

Vaccination of children above 12-years of age, who were suffering from chronic diseases, would commence at Lady Ridgeway Hospital from this Friday (24), State Minister Channa Jayasumana told Parliament yesterday. He said vaccination of the above category would commence next Monday (27) in the Western Province, while it would be extended nationwide from October 4.


The Minister said there were about 30,000 to 50,000 children above 12-years with chronic diseases in the country and added that there were 1,773,000 children between 15 and 19 years of age. 


The Minister said only Pfizer vaccine would be provided to the children. Prof. Jayasumana said the Covid situation in the country was returning to a healthy position and added that there was a decrease in oxygen dependent patients at the moment. “The oxygen consumption has been reduced to 64 tonnes per day now. The maximum oxygen demand was about 134 tonnes a day in August. We will not need to import oxygen from India any more. We hope to stop the import next week,” he said.


He said only 16,000 beds were occupied out of the 39,000 beds allocated for Covid patients in Hospitals by now. “The ICU demand has reduced by 15 percent,” he said.