Frontline workers to receive India's COVID-19 jab

COLOMBO (News1st): Sri Lanka is due to receive 500,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured in India under the brand name Covishield on Thursday. "These vaccines must be stored in a temperature ranging between 2 and 4 degrees Celcius. We have the necessary storage facilities," presidential advisor Lalith Weeratunga noted. He noted that healthcare workers - estimated at 155,000, and tri-forces personnel and police officers - estimated at around 120,000 will be the first groups to receive the vaccine. Meanwhile, China has decided to donate 300,000 Sinopharm vaccines to Sri Lanka in response to a request by the government. "The vaccines are expected to to be handed over to Sri Lanka in mid-February," the Chinese Embassy in Colombo said in a statement on Wednesday. The vaccine is manufactured by the China National Pharmaceutical Group with an efficacy between 79 to 86 percent against COVID-19. The jab can be easily stored and transported at a temperature between two and eight degrees Celcius, the statement issued by the embassy read. More than 20 million Sinopharm doses have been administered across the world by January 26, it added.