Chinese COVID Vaccine On Hold, Sri Lanka To Use India’s Covishield For Now

Colombo: Sri Lanka has decided to put China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine on hold and use India’s Serum Institute of India (SII)-manufactured Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine Covishield to inoculate 14 million people.

According to Sri Lanka’s Cabinet spokesperson Dr Ramesh Pathirana, the China is yet to complete phase 3 clinical trials of the Sinopharm vaccine.

“For the time being, we need to go with the AstraZeneca vaccine. The moment we receive full documentation from the Chinese manufacturer, we can consider registering it,” Daily Mirror quoted Pathirana as saying.

Sri Lankan government has approved the purchase of 10 million doses of ‘Made in India’ Covishield vaccine from SII for $52.5 million.

With several countries expressing concern over the lack of information on Chinese-made vaccines after initially showing interest, China is apparently putting pressure on some countries to buy its vaccine.

It was reported that Beijing wanted Nepal to accept Chinese vaccine before its efficiency and efficacy were established.

The Brazilian government stated recently that Chinese vaccine Sinovac turned out to be far less effective than Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s vaccines.

Also Read: Did China Pressurise Nepal To Accept Its COVID Vaccine? Know Here