{"id":109983,"date":"2020-12-22T16:50:23","date_gmt":"2020-12-22T23:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=109983"},"modified":"2020-12-22T16:50:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-22T23:50:23","slug":"un-assures-support-to-sri-lanka-for-the-procurement-distribution-and-administering-of-covid-19-vaccine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/12\/22\/un-assures-support-to-sri-lanka-for-the-procurement-distribution-and-administering-of-covid-19-vaccine\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Assures Support to Sri Lanka for the Procurement, Distribution and Administering of COVID-19 Vaccine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister\u2019s Media Unit<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

With several\ncountries having started COVID-19 vaccination, the United Nations has assured\nSri Lanka its support for procuring, distributing and administering of the\nvaccine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This pledge\nwas made today during a meeting between Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and a\nU.N. delegation comprising of U.N. Resident\nCoordinator Ms. Hanaa Singer, WHO\nRepresentative Dr. Razia Pendse and UNICEF Representative Mr. Tim Sutton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are fully\ncommitted to support Sri Lanka in these challenging times,\u201d Ms. Singer said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.N.\ndelegation and Sri Lankan officials agreed that vaccination at such a mass\nscale will require a whole-of-government approach to ensure Sri Lanka\u2019s\npreparedness for the delivery and administering of the vaccine once it arrives.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In many countries,\nwe are seeing a dangerous second wave of COVID-19,\u201d Prime Minister Rajapaksa\nsaid. It seems that vaccines will be the only measure that can bring an end to\nthis pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April this\nyear, a global collaboration called Access to COVID-19 Tools ACT-Accelerator\u201d\nwas established to accelerate the development, production, and equitable\naccess to COVID-19 diagnostics, therapeutics, and vaccines.\u201d Under this\nprogram, the COVAX Facility\u201d will offer vaccine doses for at least 20% of an\neligible countries\u2019 population,\nwhich will initially consist of high-risk groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Sutton\nstressed the importance of preparedness and creating awareness among the\npublic. He also told the Prime Minister that while UNICEF is already assisting\nwith procurement during the initial phase, it can also assist the Government\nwith vaccine procurement beyond the initial 20%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Pendse\nbriefed the meeting on the global vaccine landscape and stressed that even with\nthe vaccine, people will still need to take precautions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s still a new vaccine,\u201d Dr. Pendse\nsaid. It protects people from dying, but we don\u2019t know how much it will reduce the\ntransmission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the\nkey messages that emerged from the meeting from all officials is that people\ncannot become complacent even after receiving the vaccine. While studies are\nongoing, doctors say it\u2019s still not certain how long the vaccine\u2019s protection\nwill last. Furthermore, according to doctors, it\u2019s also uncertain whether the\nvaccine completely removes the virus or just reduces the viral load. If it\u2019s\nthe latter, a vaccinated person is still able to infect others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even with\nvaccination, the public is still strongly encouraged to continue wearing a\nmask, washing hands and maintaining adequate physical distance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prime Minister\u2019s Media Unit With several countries having started COVID-19 vaccination, the United Nations has assured Sri Lanka its support for procuring, distributing and administering of the vaccine. This pledge was made today during a meeting between Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and a U.N. delegation comprising of U.N. Resident Coordinator Ms. Hanaa Singer, WHO Representative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109983\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}