Sri Lanka will be receiving a consignment of 728,460 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine donated by Japan under the COVAX facility this evening (July 31), says the State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals.

Thereby, the shipment is scheduled to be airfreighted from Japan on SriLankan Airlines flight UL455 today.

This vaccine consignment has been made available by Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Tokyo, Sanjiv Gunasekara and his staff of the mission, who made numerous appeals and met with many Government Bureaucrats as well as politicians to convince the necessity.

In the meantime, a similar amount of coronavirus jabs of the same brand is expected to arrive in the country next Saturday (August 07), Prof. Channa Jayasumana said further.

When rolling out these vaccines, the priority will be given to those who have already received the first dose of AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine.

The remaining vaccines will be directed to the inoculation drive in Kegalle District.