COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) – The president of Sri Lanka on Thursday received the first 500,000 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine from India, which has fired on eight countries in the region.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
Sri Lanka said 150,000 health workers and 115,000 selected military and police troops will be the first to be inoculated at six hospitals in Colombo and its suburbs.
One of the hospitals is reserved for COVID-19 patients, while the others have separate rooms for the coronavirus.
The Ministry of Health plans to expand the vaccination campaign to 4,000 hospitals and health centers in other parts of the country next week.
Donation from India covers 250,000 people and Sri Lanka is making efforts to get more vaccines either by donating or by buying them.
The country has ordered 2 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine and plans to order 3 million more from India. He also hopes that some of the United Nations COVAX facilities can vaccinate 20% of the population.
Sri Lanka has been facing a new outbreak of the disease since October, when two groups appeared – one focused on a garment factory and the other on the main fish market – in and around Colombo. Since then, it has reported more than 55,000 cases and 260 deaths. An average of 500-900 cases are recorded daily.
“India has played the role of the first person to respond to the region,” India’s foreign ministry said in a statement as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa received the first batch of vaccines in the airport.
India also said it has expanded a $ 400 million foreign exchange service to Sri Lanka to ensure the financial stability of the neighbor during the pandemic.
India’s rival, China, announced on Wednesday that it would provide 300,000 shots of its own Sinopharm vaccine next month after both parties complete procedures.