Sri Lanka is hoping to vaccinate all people about the age of 30 years within the next two months, Namak Rajapaksa, the sports and youth affairs minister, said. Currently, around 5.8 million have received at least one dose of vaccines, and just 7.8 percent of the total population are fully vaccinated. 

Rajapaksa, whiling inaugurating development projects in Hambantota district, claimed the island nation has been efficiently managing the immunization drive. 

“After concluding the vaccination of the majority of the people, the government will be able to restore normalcy in every field including the school education and tourism,” he was quoted as saying by Daily Mirror. 

Based on the pace of the vaccination, he said he was hopeful that interprovincial travel, which is currently banned due to the spread of the deadly Delta variant, would be resumed soon. 

Targeting the opposition parties, he said they were mistaken giving the impression that the country’s economy would be totally ruined and the development activities would grind to a halt bringing about the collapse of the government. 

 Sri Lanka has been using Moderna and Chinese Sinopharm vaccines for the national immunization drive. Around 600,000 people in Sri Lanka have been waiting for the second dose of the Astra Zeneca vaccine, whose supply had come to a halt after India imposed an export ban in order to meet its own domestic requirements. 

Japan had recently assured Sri Lanka of providing 600,000 Astra-Zeneca doses needed for the second dose. 

(SAM)