Sri Lanka commenced vaccinating schoolchildren of 16 - 19 age group today (October 22) against COVID-19.

The Director-General of Health Services, speaking in this regard, said Provincial and district directors of health, as well as the epidemiologists and other health officials under their purview, have been given necessary directives on carrying out this inoculation program.

According to Dr. Asela Gunawardena, the students in this age group will be administered only one dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

He assured that there will be no shortage of COVID shots as stocks required to vaccinate the students have already been distributed to all districts.

in addition, the island-wide vaccination of students in the age group of 18-19 commenced yesterday at the respective schools.

The pilot project of this had commenced on October 15 in the Colombo District with over 10,000 school children being inoculated.

In the meantime, reopening of schools for academic activities under several phases got underway yesterday, nearly six months after they were closed amid a surge in coronavirus cases in the country. 

Accordingly, the primary sections of schools with less than 200 students were reopened to recommence in-person education.