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Rs. 1.4bn loss due to expiration of Pfizer vaccines

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The government has no plans to bring down the US-made Pfizer BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19 after about six million doses (about one million vials) expired this week, causing a whopping loss of Rs. 1.4 billion to the Government.

At the beginning of the vaccination drive against COVID-19, many people were not given the US-made Pfizer vaccine as their first and second doses. The limited amounts of Pfizer were restricted to those travelling overseas, cancer patients, and fisherfolk in the North and Northwestern coastal areas.

Health Services Deputy Director General Dr. Hemantha Herath told the Sunday Times that the Health Ministry had ended administering the US-made vaccine as the people had shown less interest in getting booster doses against the virus.

He said that despite 8.2 million people obtaining the first Pfizer booster dose (third dose) only 202,571 people had been administered the second booster shot (fourth dose).

The majority of the Pfizer vaccines were purchased by the Health Ministry, said Dr. Herath. The United States donated 1.9 million doses of Pfizer in partnership with COVAX, a World Health Organisation-led programme.

Dr. Saman Ratnayake, a former Secretary to the State Ministry of Pharmaceutical Products, Supply and Regulation, said the vials were bought in 2021 at USD 6-7 a vial when the dollar rate was Rs. 198.

According to the Epidemiology Unit, about 12 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been administered in Sri Lanka. More than 2.6 million people were given the Pfizer vaccine as the first dose, 1.1 million as the second dose, 8.3 million as the booster dose and just over 200,000 as the second booster dose.

The government has spent an estimated Rs. 52 billion for the purchase of the Pfizer vaccines.

The Health Ministry’s Chief Epidemiologist Dr. Samitha Ginige said the shelf life was extended from July 31 to October 31 after consultation with the WHO but still those who got the jab were less than expected.

Just after WHO’s confirmation of the shelf life, the government tried to donate six million doses to Myanmar with the assistance of the WHO but failed.

Health authorities said the vaccination drive to immunise school students with the Pfizer vaccine too failed due to frequent school closures. They say this year’s economic crisis, political unrest, transportation, and gas issues diverted the people’s attention away from the second booster dose.

“It is such a waste knowing millions of doses of Pfizer have expired. There were times people were desperately looking for Pfizer. Now there are no Pfizer vaccines in the country,” said Head of the Public Health Inspectors Union Upul Rohana.

He said the issue would arise for those travelling overseas seeking the Pfizer dose as the vaccine was currently not available even in the private sector.

“Most people didn’t have much choice ending up with the Indian-made Covishield or the Chinese-made Sinopharm. We as MPs were getting calls from well-known personalities seeking the Pfizer vaccine as the first and second doses,” said Opposition MP Kins Nelson who raised the vaccine concern in Parliament recently. The MP said the government should look into how such wastage of vaccines took place when there was actual demand for the specific vaccine.

COVID-19 claimed 16,781 lives and 671,110 persons have been confirmed to have contracted the virus since the first outbreak. At present Sinopharm is available at MoH-based vaccination centres.

(sundaytimes.lk)

(Except for the headline, this story, originally published by sundaytimes.lk has not been edited by SLM staff)

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‘Company issuing visa at BIA not Indian or Indian based’

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The Indian High Commission in Colombo has issued a statement over reports of Indian companies taking over visa issuance at Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake.

The statement notes “companies referred to in these reports are not India based or Indian and are headquartered elsewhere. Any reference to India in this context is unwarranted.”

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Chaos at BIA raises questions (Video)

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Questions have been raised after chaos at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake last night (May 01) has sparked widespread outrage.

This is with regard to a controversial takeover of the on-arrival visa issuance process at BIA by an Indian company – VFS Global since yesterday evening.

It is learnt that the company has levied an extra $25 alongside the standard $75 fee.

Long lines of frustrated travellers were also seen at the airport for several hours, which is a stark difference to the procedure smoothly managed in a matter of mere minutes by the Immigration and Emigration Department in the past.

Footage of a Sri Lankan citizen expressing outrage over Indian nationals deciding visa matters for fellow Sri Lankans, has also been making rounds on social media.

Although 10 Sri Lankan and Indian officers had commenced work from 5.00pm yesterday, the lines remained well over 9.00pm. Amid tensions, higher officials of the BIA and security forces had also arrived at the premises.

At 11.30pm the company officials temporarily suspended issuing visas and left the BIA with the money collected, reports say.

Upon the directive of the Controller General of Immigration and Emigration – Harsha Ilukpitiya, Immigration officers have commenced their usual duties with no issues since then, enabling the previous process to continue smoothly.

Concerns have been raised over the lack of transparency in this arrangement.

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CoPF decides on Parate Law

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The Committee on Public Finance (CoPF) has approved, subject to conditions, the Recovery of Loans by Banks (Special Provisions) (Amendment) Bill which was amended to facilitate legal provisions for the suspension of Parate Law until December 15 2024. 

Accordingly, the banks’ practice of acquiring properties of whose loans are yet to be paid off will be suspended until December 15 and the Recovery of Loans by Banks (Special Provisions) Act No. 4 of 1990 will be amended to facilitate the necessary legal provisions.
The approval was given when the Committee on Public Finance met in Parliament recently (30) under the chairmanship of Member of Parliament Dr. Harsha De Silva.

Officials representing the Ministry of Finance said that they hope to provide temporary relief to the creditors. Accordingly, the committee questioned the officials what action will be taken in this regard after December 15. Thus, the officials present failed to give a clear answer in this regard and the committee recommended to provide a road map for the actions to be taken after December 15 to those subject to Parate Law.

Also, the committee recommended that all the parties who have done business with the banks subject to Parate Law should be given a fair opportunity to negotiate with the banks.

The committee also questioned the officials about the distribution of loans under the Parate Law. The chair of the committee inquired about the manner in which the micro, small scale and medium scale enterprises in particular have received loans under this law and the criteria under which they are classified. The officials did not have the correct data about this and the chair of the committee instructed the officials to provide that data to the committee.

The committee also inquired the percentage of the sectors that were most affected. Furthermore, the committee asked the officials to provide data on the implementation of the Parate Law in other periods compared to the specific period in which there was an economic recession due to the impact of the corona virus in 2020, 2021 and 2022. The officials present mentioned that the data on this matter this will be presented to the committee in the future.

Meanwhile, the committee has also given its approval for the orders under the Foreign Exchange Act No. 12 of 2017 and the regulations under the Sri Lanka Securities and Exchange Commission Act No. 19 of 2021. Also, the committee approved the regulations under the Import and Export (Control) Act No. 1 of 1969.

State Minister Dr. Suren Raghavan, Members of Parliament Premnath C. Dolawatta and Madhura Withanage participated in this committee.

Also, officials representing several government institutions including the Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilization and National Policy, the Auditor General’s Department, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, and Sri Lanka Customs were present in this committee.

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