Sri Lanka has approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use and prepared a purchase order for five million doses, an official said.

State Minister Sudarshini Fernandopulle’s media secretary confirmed to EconomyNext that the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) granted its approval for the jab on Friday.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is one of the two pioneering jabs the World Health Organisation (WHO) approved  for emergency use, the other being the Oxford-AstaZeneca vaccine that Sri Lanka used to inoculate some 900,000 people including frontline workers.

The WHO approved the Pfizer jab for emergency use on December 31 last year.

The vaccine is produced by the US-based Pfizer pharmaceutical company and has shown the efficacy of 95 per cent against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 virus.

(SAM)