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Health Ministry urges 2nd/3rd Covid doses as expiry date looms

21 Oct 2022

BY Buddhika Samaraweera As a large number of US-German made Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine doses in the possession of the Ministry of Health are due to expire on 31 October, the Ministry has requested all those who are eligible to receive the second or third doses of the vaccine to obtain the relevant dose. Speaking to The Morning, Health Ministry Communications Director, Public Health Services Deputy Director General, and Disaster Preparedness and Response Division Head Dr. Hemantha Herath said that although the manufacturer of the said Pfizer vaccine, the German biotechnology Company BioNTech has extended the expiry date of the stock of vaccines that were to expire on 31 July until 31 October, it is unlikely that it will make such an extension again.  “As all the Covid-19 vaccines are newly manufactured, the relevant companies do not like to unnecessarily extend their expiry dates; however, since they have sufficient data now, they will work to make sure that vaccines manufactured in the future will also have a longer shelf life. Therefore, an extension of the expiry date will not be given to the vaccines that are in Sri Lanka. As a large number of vaccine doses will expire by 31 October, we request all the eligible persons to visit the nearest hospital, or the medical officer of health (MOH) office and obtain the relevant vaccine dose,” he said. Considering the matter, he said, the Ministry has eased the process of administering the vaccines at present. For instance, the hospitals and MOH offices which in the past, did not open a vaccine vial if five persons had not arrived to obtain the vaccines at a given time, would however now open a vaccine vial even when there is only one person to obtain the vaccine. Through that, Dr. Herath said that it is expected to encourage the people to obtain the vaccine, thereby preventing a massive wastage of the vaccines. The Ministry recently decided to extend the expiry date of a stock of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines belonging to four batches, and were due to expire on 31 July, by three months, until 31 October. The decision, which had been taken on the basis of a recommendation made by the Pfizer vaccine manufacturer, had been communicated by the Director General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena to the relevant officials in a circular issued in March 2022. The data available at the Epidemiology Unit of the Ministry, as of 12 October, revealed that a total of 40,206,348 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Sri Lanka, including 2,898,224 doses of the Covishield vaccine as first and second doses, 23,276,257 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine as first and second doses, 314,922 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine as first and second doses, 12,124,783 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as first, second, third and fourth doses, and 1,592,162 doses of the Moderna vaccine as first and second doses.  


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