Administration of the second dose of COVID-19 vaccines in Sri Lanka will not be affected by India’s decision to temporarily halt the exports of Oxford-AstraZeneca’s COVISHIELD jabs manufactured by the Serum Institute, State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals assures.

Prof. Channa Jayasumana explained that Sri Lanka is expecting another consignment of 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines which have already been ordered from India.

The State Minister made these remarks speaking to Derana Aruna program this morning (March 25) on the matter.

As per reports, Sri Lanka has placed a purchase order for 1.5 million doses of COVISHIELD vaccines from the Serum Institute and 500,000 jabs of this procurement arrived in the country on February 25.

Sri Lanka also received 500,000 COVISHIED vaccine doses jabs in late January, as a donation from its closest neighour, India.

In the meantime, 264,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine were delivered by the World Health Organization (WHO) under its COVAX facility, on March 07.

State Minister Prof. Jayasumana noted that there will not be any issues regarding the administration of second dose, due to the remaining COVID vaccines and the consignment expected to arrive on the island.

Foreign media on Wednesday reported that India has reached a decision to temporarily suspend the export of COVISHIELD vaccines in order to meet the domestic demand followed by the surge in coronavirus infections at home.

Reportedly, the move is expected to affect the supplies until the end of April.