Another shipment of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, provided by the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) facility, arrived in Sri Lanka today (Sep. 30).

A special flight carrying the 400,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine touched down at the Bandaranaike International Airport in the early hours of the day.

Sri Lanka is expected to receive 400,000 more Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses tomorrow as well, State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Prof. Channa Jayasumana said.

COVAX, the vaccine initiative, is the only global mechanism that distributes vaccines rapidly and equitably with the mission to help end the acute phase of the pandemic as quickly as possible.

COVAX is co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO); GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance; and, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) with UNICEF leading on logistics. COVAX receives important bilateral contributions from donors who have been consistent supporters of the UN more broadly; and, the facility also has important alliances with member countries, multilateral institutions, foundations, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, civil society organizations, manufacturers, and other stakeholders.

The first delivery of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility to Sri Lanka was 264,000 doses of AstraZeneca in March, followed by 1.5 million Moderna vaccines donated by the United States in July. Sri Lanka subsequently received more than 728,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines from Japan through this dose-sharing mechanism.