US donates nearly 200,000 additional Pfizer vaccines

Nearly 200,000 additional Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses arrived in the country today (2) as a donation from the United States (US).

“The United States has now donated 2.6 million vaccines and over $17.9 million in emergency supplies and critical services to Sri Lanka.  Additionally, the U.S. Government’s Agency for International Development, USAID, is working in partnership with the Sri Lankan government to effectively distribute, administer, and safely transport these vaccines.  US assistance has reached millions of people in Sri Lanka to control the spread of COVID-19, address urgent health needs, and mitigate the pandemic’s negative economic impacts,” the U.S. Embassy in Colombo said.

According to the Epidemiology Unit, 1.5 million Lankans have received the first dose of Pfizer while 460,889 have received the second dose of the same vaccine.

The government announced that only Pfizer will be used for the booster dose. Over 650,000 have already received the third booster dose.

(Pix by T.K.G.Kapila)