COVID-19: Sri Lanka approves Chinese Sinovac vaccine for emergency use

Colombo [Sri Lanka], July 17 (ANI): Sri Lanka has approved the emergency use of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine against COVID-19.

It is the second Chinese COVID-19 vaccine approved by Sri Lanka’s National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA), News First reported. The country has already been administrating China’s Sinopharm vaccine. China on Thursday announced that it will donate another 1.6 million doses of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine to Sri Lanka.

Besides this, Covishield, Sputnik and Pfizer vaccines are also being administrated in the country. Sinovac CoronaVac has been developed by Sinovac/China National Pharmaceutical Group. In June, the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization has issued Interim recommendations for the use of the inactivated COVID-19 vaccine.

According to the data published by the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry of Health showed that, as of Thursday, more than 51 lakh people have obtained their first shot in the island nation, which has a population of 2.18 crores. (ANI)