Two manufacturing facilities being considered for COVID vaccine production

Saturday, 6 February 2021 00:14 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Following Russia’s proposal to manufacture the Sputnik V COVID vaccine in Sri Lanka, two production facilities are currently being evaluated for the purpose, Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID Disease Control State Ministry Secretary Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva said.

He added that the proposal came in response to a request for vaccine donations made by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

“We are currently studying the Sputnik V vaccine in order to register it in Sri Lanka. State Pharmaceutical Corporation Chairman Dr. Prasanna Gunasena is already carrying out measures to procure the Sputnik vaccine,” Dr. de Silva said, adding that several countries are using the Sputnik V vaccine successfully.

“It is the Russian vaccine that South Korea used to protect their citizens. The vaccine has also been used in Hungary in Europe,” he went on to say.

In terms of production, Dr. de Silva said: “If we can bring down the Sputnik vaccine and fill them into vials here, we can go from being a country that imports vaccines to a country that exports vaccines.”

Meanwhile, Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID Disease Control State Minister Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle yesterday said close to 150,000 frontline workers have been vaccinated in the island under the immunisation program carried out with the use of 500,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine the country received as a donation from the Government of India.

She added that severe side effects are yet to be reported and that fever and body aches are to be expected after vaccinations.

“We have received information that we can provide 20% or 4.2 million of the population with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines under the World Health Organisation’s COVAX facility. The first round of this will likely begin by mid-February or March, and we expect to start vaccinating the public by March,” she said.

The vaccines the country receives through the COVAX facility will target persons over the age of 60.