Sri Lanka looks into packaging Russian vaccine

A Sri Lankan official says Russia has offered to help produce its COVID-19 vaccine locally and that the government is looking into the possibility of packaging it in two factories.

Dr. Amal Harsha de Silva. secretary to the ministry of COVID-19 prevention, told media that Russia made the offer during negotiations for vaccines.

“We have two good factories in Sri Lanka, and we are studying…(if) we are able to bring the Sputnik V vaccine here and vial it. If we manage to do that, we will move from being a country that imports vaccines to an exporter of vaccines,” he said.

Sri Lanka has so far approved only the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for domestic use and has received 500,000 doses from India, which produces the jab developed in Britain under license.

China has offered Sri Lanka a grant of vaccines, but the ones developed in China have not been approved by Sri Lankan regulators yet.

Sri Lanka has reported a total of 67,115 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 339 deaths.

(AP)