Sri Lanka to purchase 7m doses of Sputnik V vaccine

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has decided to purchase 7 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, according to The Associated Press.

The government says it will pay $69.65 million for the shots.

Sri Lanka aims to inoculate 14 million people out of the population of 22 million. So far, over 850,000 people have received their shots using the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Sri Lanka has received 1.2 million AstraZeneca doses out of at least 10 million it plans to purchase for $52.5 million. It has also approved China’s Sinopharm shots.

Of the 1.2 million doses, Sri Lanka got 500,000 as a donation from India and bought another 500,000. The other 264,000 came through the COVAX facility.

Sri Lanka has reported 91,017 confirmed cases including 554 fatalities, according to The Associated Press.