SRI LANKA'S COVID-19 VACCINATION DRIVE BEGINS TOMORROW (29)

COLOMBO (News 1st): Sri Lanka's COVID-19 vaccination drive will begin on Friday (Jan. 29), with frontline healthcare workers receiving the jab first, the Ministry of Health said on Thursday (Jan. 28). A consignment of 500,000 doses of India's AstraZeneca COVISHIELD vaccine will arrive in Sri Lanka at 11:00 am on Thursday (Jan. 28), the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 Vaccination Plan and National Development said. Upon receiving the vaccines, the frontline healthcare workers will receive the jab at six main hospitals in and around Colombo, according to Dr. Hemantha Herath, the Deputy Director-General of Health Services. Thereby, the COVID-19 vaccination drive will begin on Friday (29) at the Colombo National Hospital, Colombo North Teaching Hospital-Ragama, Colombo-South Teaching Hospital, Homagama Base Hospital, Colombo East Base Hospital Mulleriyawa, and the Infectious Disease Hospital in Angoda. "25 percent of the hospital staff at each hospital are set to receive the jab on the first day of inoculation. The vaccination of healthcare workers may take about four to five days for completion," Dr. Hemantha Herath elaborated. The inoculation process will be carried out in other districts as well, parallel to the vaccination drive in Colombo. "The Ministry of Health will conduct an online meeting tomorrow with other hospitals, Provincial Directors of Health, Regional Directors of Health Services and other main officers at the regional level to issue the basic instructions related to the vaccination drive," Dr. Hemantha Herath, the Deputy Director-General of Health Services further added. Meanwhile, according to Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle, the State Minister of Primary Health Care, Epidemics and COVID Disease Control, the 1st phase of COVID-19 inoculation in the country will conclude in one week.