Colombo (Srilanka), April 30: The World Bank has approved 80.5 million U.S. dollars as additional financing to help Sri Lanka access and distribute fairly the COVID-19 vaccines and strengthen the country's vaccination system and pandemic response, local media quoted the World Bank as reporting Thursday.
This additional finance builds on the 217.56 million U.S. dollars which were approved in April 2020 towards the Sri Lanka COVID-19 Emergency Response and Pandemic Preparedness Project.
The World Bank said this new financing will help purchase vaccines to cover approximately 4 million people and will also cover the costs of deploying safe and effective vaccines to 20 percent of Sri Lanka's population to meet the target of vaccinating at least 60 percent of its population.
This additional financing will help implement the National Vaccine Deployment Plan of the Ministry of Health, the World Bank said.
"Sri Lanka has demonstrated resilience in the implementation of its test, trace and treat pandemic management strategy, which has relied on its well-established public healthcare system," said World Bank Country Director for Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka Faris H. Hadad-Zervos.
"To recover from the pandemic-induced impacts, Sri Lanka needs sustainable financing mechanisms to further strengthen and equip its healthcare system, to protect its population through improved vaccination programs and curative and preventive healthcare," Faris added.
Sri Lanka has to date vaccinated over 900,000 people in the country's Western Province including capital Colombo and will look to restart its vaccination program next month once more vaccines arrive.
Source: Xinhua
