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Only 25% of eligible have taken booster

28 Dec 2021

  • 10 m yet to obtain third dose despite sufficient stocks
  • Epidemiology Chief notes ‘clear lack of public interest’
BY Buddhika Samaraweera Out of the population eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine booster dose, only about 25% have received it, according to the Ministry of Health’s Epidemiology Unit. Announcing this to the media yesterday (28), Epidemiology Unit Head Dr. Samitha Ginige said: “That means that another 75%, approximately 10 million people, have not yet received it.” Noting that the country was in possession of enough vaccine stocks at the moment, he added that the people, however, were reluctant to obtain the booster dose. “The health authorities decided to administer the booster dose to everyone over the age of 20 years, but we know that there is clearly a lack of public interest in receiving it,” he noted. Sri Lanka is currently administering the US-German-made Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine as the booster third dose. As per data available on the website of the Epidemiology Unit, Sri Lanka has, as of 27 December, administered a total of 3,550,824 Pfizer-BioNTech doses as the booster third dose. Meanwhile, speaking to The Morning last week, Ministry of Health Communications Director and Deputy Director General of Public Health Services Dr. Hemantha Herath said that various parties were spreading misinformation about the booster dose in an organised manner. “There are plenty of parties that want to sabotage something good and it is those parties that are spreading this misinformation. But what we have to say is that obtaining the booster dose has not been reported to cause serious complications,” he added. Pointing out that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was being administered in many parts of the world, Dr. Herath said that if it had any side effects, developed countries would have already been able to detect it. “People interpret these as they see fit, but if this vaccine causes serious complications, developed countries are not waiting for us to expose it. If so, they would have already confirmed so and stopped the administration of this vaccine,” he added.


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