Sri Lanka received Indian manufactured 1.2 million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses so far

Three consignments of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine manufactured in India, totalling over 1.2 million doses, arrived in Sri Lanka in January, February and March this year - the last one through the COVAX facility, Indian High Commission in Colombo said.

The first of these consignments enabled the launch of COVID vaccination programme in Sri Lanka ahead of the earlier plan.

“India’s vaccine manufacturing capacity – already the largest in the world – is being enhanced to meet the emergency global demand of duly approved COVID-19 vaccines.  Their ongoing supply is calibrated in view of several factors, which include production and domestic requirements,” the statement said.

Responding to media queries on the latest status of supply of made in India COVID-19 vaccines to Sri Lanka,  spokesperson of the Indian High Commission  said that in line with its commitment to collectively fight COVID-19 pandemic, India has supplied 64.51 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines (as on 09 April 2021) to 85 countries, bilaterally as well as through COVAX, and also to UN health workers and peacekeepers.

The latest of these supplies have been delivered as recently as last week to countries in Asia, the Pacific and South America.