Sri Lankan authorities denied reports of delay in procurement of one million Covishield vaccines from Serum Institute of India and said the vaccines will arrive in the country by March and April.

According to a report on Economy Next, the State Pharmaceutical Corporation said that the SII has confirmed to the SPC its commitment to delivering the doses as scheduled. SPC General Manager Dinusha Dassanayake refuted the earlier reports by media on possible delay in vaccine delivery.

“We confirmed with the Serum Institute in India about the purchases we made earlier this year. As scheduled, two consignments of 500,000 batches of Oxford Covishield vaccine will arrive in Sri Lanka in March and April,” he was quoted as saying by Economy Next.

Adar Poonawala, in a letter to the SPC chairman, said, “To meet these additional supply commitments, we commenced the expansion of our manufacturing facilities. Regrettably, a fire at one of our buildings has caused obstacles to the expansion of our monthly manufacturing output.”

Also on Sunday, Sri Lanka received its first consignment of Covishield from the WHO’s Covishield. So far, around 7 lakh people have been vaccinated in Sri Lanka.