Sri Lanka is expected to receive 728,000 more doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from Japan later today (August 07), says Prof. Channa Jayasumana, the State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals.
The shipment, airfreighted from Japan by a SriLankan Airlines flight, will touch down at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake this evening.
Through the COVAX facility, the Japanese Government provided approximately 1.45 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in Japan to further boost Sri Lanka’s national inoculation drive.
The first half of this vaccine consignment arrived in Sri Lanka last Saturday (July 31).
This donation allowed Sri Lanka to resume the administration of AstraZeneca second doses, which was disrupted by India’s decision to temporarily halt AstraZeneca’s COVISHIELD vaccines in order to meet the domestic demand followed by a surge in COVID-19 infections at home in March.
