Sinopharm vaccines give Sri Lanka cause for cheer

Just before Sri Lanka joined Buddhists worldwide in observing Vesak Full Moon Poya Day on May 26, the country, hit hard by COVID-19, received a special gift.

Last Tuesday a Sri Lankan Airlines flight carrying 500,000 Sinopharm vaccine doses landed at Bandaranaike International Airport north of Colombo, unleashing a celebration among waiting ministers and senior officials.

The following day Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa, thanked China for its aid in fighting the pandemic.

"I will ensure a strong vaccination drive for all, and in addition to the 600,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines donated previously, another 500,000 doses arrived (at the airport) this morning," Gotabaya Rajapaksa said. "Thank you, government of China and Chinese embassy in Sri Lanka for the assistance in our drive against the pandemic."

Mahinda Rajapaksa said: "On behalf of the government of Sri Lanka and the people of Sri Lanka I'm grateful for the friendship shared with China."

The COVID-19 vaccines from Beijing were handed over to Sri Lanka's health minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi by Qi Zhenhong, China's ambassador to Sri Lanka.

The 500,000 Sinopharm vaccine doses were valuable for Sri Lanka, Wanniarachchi said. China had previously gifted a batch of 600,000 Sinopharm doses to Sri Lanka, on March 31.

The country recorded a total of 180,593 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 1,405 deaths by late on Saturday, government sources said. There were 2,882 reported infections on Saturday, compared with highs of more than 3,500 a day from May 20 to May 23.

Ravi Rannan-Eliya, executive director of the Institute for Health Policy in Colombo, said the virus surge in Sri Lanka is driven by B.117, also known as the Kent variant, found in the United Kingdom.

There have been no reports yet of variant B1.617.2 cases in the community, but genomic sequencing is very limited, and it is possible that it is present in the community, he said.

The vaccine handover was in line with President Rajapaksa's insistence that most Sri Lankans must be inoculated as soon as possible.

"Our cooperation with China is on par with our overall economic and commercial trajectories," he told the 26th International Conference on The Future of Asia in Tokyo on May 21. "China has been a key investment partner to Sri Lanka."

With Sri Lanka having set a target of vaccinating 60 to 70 percent of its people by the end of this year, last Tuesday the country's cabinet approved the purchase of 14 million Chinese Sinopharm vaccine doses and 1 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses.

The country, with a population of 22 million, had administered more than 1.8 million vaccine doses by Sunday, according to official figures.