President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has instructed the relevant officials to expedite the COVID-19 vaccine import procedure and the inoculation drive, says the President’s Media Division (PMD). In the meantime, the country’s health sector has 600,000 Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines received from China. Sinopharm vaccines have been successfully administered to more than 55 million people in 51 countries, the PMD added. Accordingly, the President has further directed the officials to hold discussions with the health authorities of those countries to explore the possibility of administering the vaccine expeditiously. Negotiations are already underway to obtain vaccines from countries where there is an excess of AstraZeneca vaccine, the PMD continued.

Source: The Nation May 08, 2021 02:48 UTC