Sri Lankan Cabinet on Tuesday cleared a proposal to buy 1 million Astra Zeneca vaccines and 14 million Chinese Sinopharm vaccines. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the country’s prime minister, in the meeting the country needed to be supplied vaccines as soon as possible.

Significantly, its earlier deal with the Serum Institute of India didn’t work out as the company had to prioritize India’s domestic demand as the Covid-19 situation took a disastrous turn there.

Sri Lankan officials are also in touch with US authorities to get the supply of vaccines from the latter’s buffer stock. Earlier this month, UP President Joe Biden had announced that the US would share its excess vaccines with developing countries.

WHO’s COVAX facility- a program to provide vaccines to middle and lower-income group categories- will also provide vaccines to the island nation.  However, the COVAX supply has been disrupted due to its excessive reliance on the Serum Institute of India.