Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2021-09-21

Obtaining an Additional Loan of US$ 100 million under the COVID - 19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Programme

- The National Task Force for COVID - 19 Management has decided to expand the initial target of vaccinating 60% of the population in Sri Lanka as outlined in the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan for Covid -19. The World Bank has agreed to grant an additional loan of US$ 100 million for the Sri Lanka COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project under the COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Programme (SPRP). It has been planned to use the said additional loan for the purchase of 14 million doses of Pfizer vaccine and for financing other expenditure pertaining to the vaccination task. As such, the proposal made by the Minister of Health to obtain the relevant additional financing facility, was approved by the Cabinet.