Sri Lanka receives 1st batch of COVID-19 vaccines via COVAX facility

"Arrival of the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX Facility in Sri Lanka marks another step in our goal to ensure equitable and fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally," WHO said in a statement.

The first delivery to the South Asian island country included 264,000 doses of the Astra Zeneca/Oxford vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India. By May, Sri Lanka is expected to receive 1,440,000 doses.

"The additional doses to cover 20% of Sri Lanka's population will arrive in the second half of 2021. All these doses are donor-funded and provided at no cost to Sri Lanka," WHO added.

Sri Lanka rolled out its mass vaccination campaign in January after receiving the first 500,000 doses of the Covieshield vaccine — India's version of the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine — from New Delhi. The vaccines produced by Pfizer, Moderna, Janssen and AstraZeneca have also been approved by the island nation's authorities. Earlier this week, Sri Lanka, as well, became the 43rd country to approve Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19.

To date, the country has confirmed more than 85,000 cases of the virus, including 494 fatalities.

COVAX aims to ship close to 2 billion doses of vaccines globally by the end of 2021. It has recently started a roll-out of Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines and is looking to add more to its portfolio.