Sri Lanka to buy 6 million more Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccines

Sri Lanka has decided to buy 6 million more Sputnik V vaccines, raising the total it plans to purchase from Russia to 13 million doses.

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sri lanka | Coronavirus Vaccine

AP  |  Colombo (Sri Lanka) 

Photo: Bloomberg
Coronavirus vaccine

has decided to buy 6 million more Sputnik V vaccines, raising the total it plans to purchase from Russia to 13 million doses.

The government plans to inoculate 14 million people out of Sri Lanka's population of 22 million, and so far has approved the vaccines from Oxford-AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and China's Sinopharm.

Cabinet ministers approved the health minister's proposal for the purchase, Cabinet spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said Tuesday.

It comes two weeks after the government said it would buy 7 million Sputnik V doses at a cost of $69.65 million.

has vaccinated 903,000 people with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

It will use donated Sinopharm doses to inoculate Chinese workers in but will not administer the vaccine to Sri Lankans without World Health Organization approval.

It has received 1,264,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and has said it would buy another 13.5 million.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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First Published: Tue, April 06 2021. 16:45 IST
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