Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapksa has ordered his officials to get 600,000 Astra-Zeneca vaccines at any cost for the people who had already received their first dose and are now waiting for a second jab. 

The country needs 600,000 doses urgently as the Serum Institute of India (SII) - with which it had signed the agreement--has failed to provide vaccines on time. Sri Lanka had earlier received around one million doses from the SII and upon the assurance of timely delivery of the second doses by the SII, officials exhausted all doses in the first jab. 

A report in Daily Mirror stated that the council of ministers in Sri Lanka is discussing the matter urgently as the time is running out for the people. Officials are also in touch with various countries that are holding excess stock of vaccines. However, they haven’t secured any assurance so far. 

The government had also approached several private companies who were claiming to have the vaccine. However, Astra-Zeneca, the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company, in a letter to the Sri Lankan government, warned against purchasing it from private players. It said those vaccines are likely counterfeit. 

Lately, opposition leaders in Sri Lanka have also started questioning the government policies on procurement of vaccines. Ranil Wickremesinghe, former prime minister, had recently asked the government to bring special laws to manage the Covid crisis. 

(SAM)