COLOMBO: With Sri Lanka’s vaccine rollout tarnished by the delay in the shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines, well known social activist, Dr. Tush Wickramanayake is leading a campaign by people of Sri Lankan origin living in the UK to persuade the British government to release a supply of 600,000 doses of this vaccine to help those Sri Lankans who are scheduled to get a second jab.
Dr. Tush Wickramanayaka, a National Health Services General Practitioner, a family physician licensed in both UK and Sri Lanka and daughter of former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka told Sri Lanka’s ‘Daily Mirror’ that the group of Sri Lankans living in the UK have made an urgent appeal to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and are lobbying their constituent MP’s to help get the AstraZeneca vaccine rollout in Sri Lanka back on track.
Dr. Wickramanayaka, who is based in the UK, said that the appeal to Prime Minister Boris Johnson highlights that just over one million people out of a population of 22 million in Sri Lanka have received the first dose of the Covishield-AstraZeneca vaccine and about 600,000 people are without the second dose, placing several thousand healthcare workers at risk.
“The tragic death toll and illness amongst the general public is mounting by the hour. With a total of about 600 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds and grossly inadequate ICU facilities in national hospitals, Sri Lanka faces an appalling rate of attrition that her fragile health service can ill-afford” she told the newspaper in a no-holds barred interview.
The COVID-19 death toll in the island passed the 2,000 mark with 101 more fatalities being reported, the Epidemiology Unit said on Friday, June 11. This is the highest number of deaths recorded in the country in a single day since the outbreak of the pandemic.
The following organisations in UK have also supported the appeal: Association of Professionals of Sri Lanka, Meththa Foundation, Medical Institute of Tamils, Friends of Manipay Hospital, Association of Sri Lankan Lawyers in UK, HelaSarana, Medical Aid to Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Medical and Dental Association in UK, Council of Sri Lankan Muslim Organisations UK, Kandy Girls High School Old Girls Association UK, Peradeniya Medical School Alumni Association UK, Mahamaya Old Girls’ Association, Visakha Vidyalaya PPA, Ananda College OBA, Kingswood College OBA, Ananda College Old Boys’ Association , Musaeus College Past Pupils’ Association and World Forum of Sri Lankan Muslims.
Each member of the organisations supporting the appeal has lobbied their individual constituent Members of Parliament, encouraging them to write to and/or question the Prime Minister and other key members of the Cabinet in support of prioritising the supply of vaccines to Sri Lanka. She said that a change.org petition was also commenced targeting 100,000 signatures that will compel the British parliament to resolve the vaccine inequity facing Sri Lankans and citizens of the developing world.
“The petition has generated an inspiring 10,000 signatures within 24 hours,” Dr. Wickramanayaka said.
The AstraZeneca vaccine is sold under the brand names Covishield and Vaxzevria, among others. It is developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company.
Sri Lanka had started its COVID-19 vaccination programme in late January, after receiving 1,264,000 doses of the Covishield-branded version of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII). However, the inoculation programme was affected as the Serum Institute of India, suspended vaccine supply, due to a spike in the number of coronavirus cases in India. Half a million of the Covishield-AstraZeneca vaccine doses were donated by the Indian government, with another half directly purchased by the State Pharmaceutical Corporation from SII. The remaining 264,000 was received through the World Health Organisation (WHO)-led COVAX initiative aimed at providing equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines to vulnerable populations worldwide.
The Sri Lankan government is appealing to foreign governments and other parties to share their excess stocks of AstraZeneca in an attempt to meet the current shortage and complete administering the second dose to citizens.
The efforts being made in world capitals to rectify the vaccine shortfall came as a distinguished group of academics and good governance activists wrote a blistering open letter to the Director General of Health Services demanding answers for the way the distribution of vaccines has been managed and referred to the situation of people who got the first AstraZeneca vaccine, and cannot get the second jab, because “the government has no AstraZeneca vaccines to distribute.”
“As you are aware, citizens have a right to information in regard to the administration of public institutions, both under the Constitution and the Right to Information Act. We must know, therefore, how the Covid vaccination programme in your Ministry is planned, managed and administered in the public interest.
“Today, over 600,000 persons, who have received the first AstraZeneca vaccine have no assurance that they will receive the second. Please inform the public without further delay whether the AstraZeneca vaccine has been ordered and will be administered to those who received the first vaccine, ” the eminent personalities said in the letter.
