Colombo: With young people infected with Coronavirus reaching a third of hospital admissions in Sri Lanka, the government has decided to extend the current Covid vaccination program to include those under 30 years old, a top official said on Tuesday.
The Chairperson of the Lanka State Pharmaceutical Company, Dr.
Prasanna Gunasena in interaction with reporters here said 3.5 million from a total of 21 million inhabitants of the country was under 30 and given the current spike of the deadly viral infection, the 18-29 year age group was very important.
“Nearly 30 percent of patients (Coronavirus) have been hospitalized under 30 years,” he said.
Gunasena said the government was convinced that it could begin to vaccinate under 30 years of age population at the end of August.
“We will not wait until we vaccinate all above 30 to start vaccinations for 30 years.
At the end of August or the first week of September, our plan is to fully vaccinate around 96 percent of the 30 categories above.
At the same time we will begin to vaccinate on Down 30 around the time and ended at the end of September, “he said.
State Pharmaceutical Corporation is a nodal agent, which is a covid vaccine in Lanka.
Lanka has been vaccinated 50 percent of the population with one dose, and 13.8 percent with two doses on August 08.
Gunasena urged the public to be vaccinated on the first occasion.
“In Colombo there are around 40,000 people over the age of 60 years who have not received a single dose.
Vaccines,” he said.
Gunasena also shows that false information is spreading around certain vaccine brands.
Misleading information is circulated that some vaccine brands are not allowed abroad and the people who take the photos will not be allowed to travel abroad, he said.
Meanwhile, the police said they had started a search for those who avoid vaccination.
The local administration office of each is to collect information from every household on vaccination status.
According to the Ministry of Health, the record 111 Covid-19 death was recorded on Monday – the highest number of daily deaths so far, taking the total number of pandemic deaths to 5,222.
Of the total deaths, 4,613 was reported in the ongoing third wave, which hit the nation in mid-April.
Authorities also see options to implement the total lockdown again in the island country.
“That (total locking) is one of the options, but the decision can only be taken by consideration of so many other factors,” Dr.
Hemattha Herath, Deputy Director of Health Services, told reporters on Monday.