President reinforces measures to ensure 60% vaccination before September

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has put forward a comprehensive mechanism to vaccinate a majority (60%) of the population against COVID-19 before September.

Ongoing measures and those new came up for review yesterday during the Special Committee on Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak meeting, held at the Presidential Secretariat.

A statement from the President’s Media Office said the number of vaccines that are being received in July will be made available to the public, giving priority to the districts identified as high-risk areas for COVID-19 spread.

The President said that 200,000 doses out of the total two million Sinopharm vaccines to be received on Sunday (11 July) should be allocated for the Colombo District; 500,000 for Gampaha; and 300,000 for Kalutara in order to complete the vaccination of all persons over the age of 30 in the Western Province before 30 July.

A total of 100,000 vaccines each have been allocated for Galle, Matara, Hambantota, Anuradhapura, Nuwara Eliya, Ratnapura, Badulla and Matale districts and 200,000 vaccines have been allocated for the Kurunegala district.

The country is expected to receive 1.47 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine within the next two weeks. Out of this, 600,000 doses will be allocated to the Colombo district for the people who have received the first dose. The President instructed that the balance should be given as the first and second doses for the people in the Kegalle district.

Plans have been made to administer the Pfizer vaccine doses that have been already received to the people in Mannar and Vavuniya Districts while the Moderna vaccine, which is to be received, is planned to be administered in the Kandy district.

It was decided to administer the future vaccine doses set to arrive in the country in a scientific manner, taking into account the spread of COVID-19 in the country.

President Rajapaksa also instructed that steps be taken to provide more space for the resumption of economic activities as a significant percentage of doses have already been given to the people. The need to brief the foreign diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka on the local vaccination drive and the current situation in the country was also discussed.

Ministers Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Bandula Gunawardana, Keheliya Rambukwella, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Prasanna Ranatunga and Namal Rajapaksa, State Ministers Sudarshini Fernandopulle, Channa Jayasumana and Sisira Jayakody, MP Madhura Withanage, Senior Advisor to the President Lalith Weeratunga, Secretary to Health Ministry Major General (Retd.) Sanjeewa Munasinghe, Commanders of the three armed forces, the Inspector-General of Police and the Heads of the health sector were also present at the meeting.