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Japan’s Ambassador Sugiyama Akira yesterday handed over the first batch of AstraZeneca vaccines (728,460 doses) manufactured in Japan, which arrived in Sri Lanka on 31 July to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa at a special ceremony held in the Presidential Secretariat. This ceremony was arranged at the kind invitation of President to express his appreciation, on behalf of the Government and people of Sri Lanka, to the people of Japan for providing AstraZeneca vaccines, which will further bolster the vaccination program steered under the strong leadership of President Rajapaksa
The second batch of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses from Japan is expected on Saturday, the President’s Media Division (PMD) stated yesterday.
According to the PMD, Japan will be donating a total of 1,456,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, of which 728,460 doses reached the island on 31 July. The second batch will thus consist of 727,540 doses of the vaccine.
At present, persons awaiting the second dose of AstraZeneca are being vaccinated, with vaccinations having begun a day after the first batch of vaccine doses was received. Vaccination is currently taking place at 20 centres in the Western Province.
According to the Epidemiology Unit, 69,266 persons received the second dose of AstraZeneca on Sunday. While 925,242 persons have received the first dose of the vaccine, 455,151 persons have received the second dose as well.
On Sunday, 114,997 persons received the first dose of Sinopharm and 31,223 persons received the second dose. In total, the first dose of the vaccine has been administered to 8,077,072 persons while the second dose has been administered to 1,785,041 persons.
The first dose of Moderna was administered to 432 persons on Sunday with a total of 714,091 persons having received the first dose of the vaccine to date.
In addition to this, 201,495 persons have received the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and 192 persons the second dose.
The first dose of Sputnik V has been administered to 159,081 persons, of which 14,503 persons have received the second dose as well.
In total, the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine has been administered to 10,076,981 persons and the second dose has been administered to 2,254,887 persons.
Of the country’s over-30 population, 87.7% have received the first dose of a vaccine and 19.6% the second dose.
