The Sri Lankan government has decided to procure nine million doses of Covishield, the Astra Zeneca vaccines of COVID-19 manufactured by Serum Institute in India, Daily Mirror reported. 

Lalith Weeratunga, the head of the Sri Lankan Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, informed concerned authorities regarding the decision. “This was informed during a discussion held with him and other stakeholders yesterday,” Daily Mirror quoted him as saying. 

Sri Lanka will start vaccinating people over 60 years of age from the first week of March. Earlier, India has donated 1 million doses of Covishield to Sri Lanka last month. 

“We will take appropriate action to purchase the said number of vaccines from India. The consignment of vaccines is expected to arrive in Sri Lanka in February through the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation " Weeratunga said. 

The country has started vaccinating health workers from 29 January. Till Tuesday, around 115,000 health workers have been inoculated. The government has planned to vaccinate a total of 250,000 health workers in the first phase. 

Earlier reports said authorities in Sri Lanka were in discussion with Russia, China, and the United States for procurement of different COVID-19 vaccines. Officials suggested the government to procure multiple vaccines rather than concentrating on a single type.