Age Group of 18 -30 to be vaccinated- Ministry of Health regret for the delay

It is informed that the the Government is planning to start inoculating those in the age group of 18-30 by 2nd week of September, acting chief epidemiologist Samitha Ginige said while addressing a media briefing today (22).

“Country’s population over the age of 30 is 11.5 million. We need 23 million to administer them both the doses. At present we have received 19.5 million vaccines. The remaining doses will be available in the next two weeks. Our goal is to give both doses to everyone over the age of 30 by the first week of September. We are successfully reaching that goal” he said.

Once the over 30 vaccination program gets completed, the Government will begin the 18 to 30 category, he added.

He also said that as per government statistics, 99% of the population above the age of 30 have receive at least one dose of the vaccine and 48% of the same age group have received both doses.

Addressing the media, director of the health promotion bureau, Dr. Ranjith Batuwanthudawa said that they will continue to implement the program to treat selected Covid patients between the ages of 2-65 at home. 

He said that patients with no long term decease, ability to communicate with them regularly and availability of a separate room for the patients are the prerequisites to treat a patient at home.

Dr. Batuwanthudawa went on to explain that doctors contact the patients being treated at home at least twice a day and provide the necessary instructions.

“The treat from home program initially started from the Kalutara district. Only around 5% of the patients reported complications and were hospitalized. There were no deaths reported from homes during this pilot project. Based on its success it was decided to continue this program. This was done to ease the congestion at hospitals due to the rapid spread of the virus with the delta variant” He went on to say.