Sri Lanka has fully vaccinated over 8.5 million people--roughly 40 percent of its total eligible population--by Wednesday this week, and almost 4 million others received their first dose, the data released by the country’s health authority showed. This comes at a time when the island nation is under a nationwide lockdown and has been struggling to contain the deadly outbreak-- mostly because of the Delta variant. The daily cases rose to almost 8500 in the last few weeks which overwhelmed the country’s health infrastructure. 

Although the number of daily infections came down significantly, it still remains too high to ease restrictions. On Wednesday, the country reported around 4500 cases. Health experts are advising the government to further extend lockdown. 

The Chinese Sinopharm vaccine remains the most widely used vaccine in Sri Lanka with almost 10 million people have received at least a single dose of the vaccine. The first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been administered to a total of 1,389,752 by Wednesday while 885,965 are fully vaccinated.

Other vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna, donated by Covax and the US, are also in use. The government had also placed orders for Russian Sputnik-V vaccines. However, its supply is being delayed. Up to 133,799 who received the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine are awaiting their second dose.

(SAM)