COVID-19 vaccines: Sri Lanka seeks $100 million assistance from IMF
(Sourced from PTI)
Sri Lanka has decided to ask for a $100 million loan from IMF to procure 14 million doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and finance other vaccination program-related costs, it was announced on Wednesday. "Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella had proposed that Sri Lanka obtain the additional loan grant of $100 million under the program of strategic preparation and response to COVID 19," the government said.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has agreed to grant a supplementary loan of $100 million to assist Sri Lanka's COVID 19 response, the government further said in a statement. The minister for pharmaceuticals Channa Jayasumana told the Parliament on Tuesday that the government had already vaccinated over 50 percent of the island nation's 21 million population.
"Our target is to vaccinate over 75 percent of the population within the next few months," he said. He added as of September 20, the first dose vaccination had been completed for over 62 percent of the population.
The public health inspectors said that those below the age of 30 had shown reluctance to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Only around 35 percent of them had received the jabs by September 20. "The younger people seem to believe that the Pfizer vaccine is the most effective," Public Health Inspectors (PHI) spokesman Upul Rohana said.
The Pfizer vaccine has been rolled out so far limited to the southern province and a part of the eastern province, health authorities said. The bulk of the local vaccinations had come from the Chinese Sinopharm with 26 million doses being received so far. Sri Lanka has recorded 12,284 deaths while the total number of COVID-19 infections stood at 5,07,330.
