Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2021-01-04

Vaccine application by Sri Lanka to Covax facility

- Covax facility is a global initiative that brings governments and manufactures together to ensure the equitable access and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine when a safe and efficient vaccine is produced. Under this, the manufacture and the development of COVID - 19 vaccine is accelerated and a fair and equitable access for every country in the World is guaranteed.

Sri Lanka has already entered into Covax mechanism and GAVI (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization) which includes also the World Health Organization, has confirmed that Sri Lanka is eligible for the official development assistance to receive doses of Covid-19 vaccine through the Covax facility.

In order to obtain the vaccine facility, countries were invited to submit vaccine request application form in two phases and the first and part A of the Vaccine application form containing technical details of the target group and vaccine storage capacity has to be submitted before 2020‑12‑07. Sri Lanka has submitted the said forms on time. Applications are required to be submitted before 2021‑01‑08 for the part two of the vaccine request to obtain the vaccines and for entering into relevant indemnification agreement. Accordingly, the proposal made by the Minister of Health to submit the part B of the vaccine request to Covax and to enter into an Agreement with the manufacturer at the time when the vaccines are allocated by Covax facility, following the instructions of the Attorney General, was approved by the Cabinet.