More than half of health workers and frontline military and police officers vaccinated

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan health officials said more than half of the health workers and frontline military and police officers have so far been vaccinated against COVID-19, according to The Associated Press.

Sri Lanka last week began inoculating it’s frontline health workers, military troops and police officers against COVID-19 amid warnings that the sector faces a collapse with a number of health staff being infected with the new coronavirus.

The ministry had planned to first vaccinate 150,000 health workers and selected 115,000 military and police personnel.

By Saturday, 156,310 had been given with COVISHIELD vaccine, according to The Associated Press.

India had donated 500,000 does of Oxford-AstraZenica vaccine also known as the COVISHIELD which is the only vaccine approved by the regulatory body in Sri Lanka.

Health Ministry says Sri Lanka has ordered 18 millions doses of COVISHIELD vaccines and also had asked to allocate 2 million doses of Pfizer-BioNtech.

Besides, China has promised to provide 300,000 shots of Sinopharm vaccine this month, according to The Associated Press.

Sri Lanka has witnessed a fresh outbreak of the disease since last year’s October when two clusters — one centered on a garment factory and other on the fish market — emerged in Colombo and its suburbs.