A health worker innoculates a colleague with a Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine at a government hospital in Homagama on January 29, 2021 (AFP)
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka on Friday launched its national coronavirus immunisation campaign by administering the first shots to frontline health workers, soldiers and security personnel, a day after India gifted 500,000 doses of Covishield vaccine to the island nation.
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Thursday thanked India for its generosity after he received 500,000 doses of Covishield vaccine donated by the country under the Neighbourhood First policy.
The consignment was packed in 42 boxes.
Rajapaksa was joined at the airport by the Indian envoy in Colombo Gopal Baglay.
5,286 frontline healthcare workers received their first COVID vaccine dose
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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.
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Colombo (News 1st); Senior Advisor to the President and Head of the Presidential Task Force for Sri Lanka’s COVID-19 vaccination drive Lalith Weeratunga said any citizen is entitled to the right to refuse to be vaccinated.
The President’s Media Division quoting Weeratunga said obtaining the vaccine will be at the discretion of any citizen.
The first consignment of the Indian government-gifted AstraZeneca Covidshield vaccines was officially handed over to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa by High Commissioner of India Dr Gopal Baglay at the Colombo airport on Thursday (28) morning.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa recently requested the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the vaccines to be used in Sri Lanka.
Posted on January 6th, 2021
Courtesy Adaderana
Two more COVID-19 related deaths reported today (January 06) has pushed Sri Lanka’s fatality count from the virus to 219 cases in total.
As per the Director-General of Health Services, one of the victims is a 60-year-old male from the Dehiwala area.
He had been transferred to the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID/IDH) from the Colombo South Teaching Hospital in Kalubowila, upon being diagnosed as a COVID-19 patient. The cause of death has been determined to be blood poisoning, kidney infection, and COVID-19 pneumonia.
Meanwhile, a 78-year-old female from Alawwa has succumbed to a severe diabetic condition, malfunction of heart, and a severe respiratory infection caused by the coronavirus infection.
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