Sri Lanka expects to vaccinate 13 million of its population against COVID-19 by the end of September, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in a televised address to the nation on Friday (June 25).

Speaking on the national inoculation drive, the President stated that Sri Lanka will ramp up vaccination programs upon the receipt of 21 million of coronavirus vaccines in the coming three months.

Four million doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine and 2.5 million of Sinovac vaccine are expected to arrive in July. Meanwhile, arrangements have been made to obtain 2 million more shots of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, the President said further. In addition, 5 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine, 2.5 million doses of Sinovac and 2 million doses of Sputnik V are expected in August. Upon receiving, 3 million more Sinopharm vaccines in September, Sri Lanka will be able to inoculate 13 million people by the end of September this year, he added.

“Accordingly, we can vaccinate almost everyone over the age of 30 by that time and this is a very satisfactory situation.”

Inoculation drive is successfully moving forward in each district now and more than 3 million people have already been vaccinated, the President Rajapaksa added.

He pointed out that the risk of coronavirus infection can be contained by vaccinating the majority of the population, as  many developed countries, which initially suffered severely from the outbreak of the pandemic, did.

The President said he made special efforts in the recent past to bring down vaccines to Sri Lanka, “because I wanted to vaccinate all the people in our country.”

“As a result of these efforts, the country is now receiving a large number of vaccines that we need on a monthly basis. We only use the vaccines approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO). So far, we have received 1,264,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, 3.1 million Sinopharm vaccine doses, and 130,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine. Altogether, we have received a total of 4,494,000 vaccine doses.”

President Rajapaksa pointed out that every time the country is shut down due to risks of coronavirus infection, the government spends around Rs. 30 billion in each round to provide an allowance of Rs. 5,000 for daily wage earners who lost their livelihoods owing to the outbreak of the pandemic.

“At present the government has borne this cost on a number of occasions. The government incurs a number of additional costs related to the health sector in relation to the coronavirus pandemic. The government has incurred additional costs to conduct PCR and antigen tests, to treat identified infected persons and to set up a number of new treatment centres. In addition to the cost of quarantine centres maintained by the government, each family quarantined in their own homes were provided with a relief package worth Rs. 10,000 for two weeks.”

During his address, the President highlighted that since the beginning of the crisis, the government has spent over Rs. 260 billion to provide relief to the people. “When the expenditure on support measures relating to the COVID-19 crisis is added to the planned subsidies, it is about half of the country’s total government revenue of Rs. 1,380 billion last year.”

However, despite the dire situation caused by the pandemic, the government has never taken actions to reduce the salaries or allowances of more than 1.4 million public servants, he continued.

Speaking on the ban imposed on import and re-export of agricultural products, the President said, “It was a great blessing during the coronavirus pandemic that we paid special attention to the importance of food security in the country while building a people-centric economy. We did not have to face such problems when countries that depended on imported food were in trouble.” He noted that the ban created a good market for crops such as pepper and turmeric.

The government has taken several important steps towards building a sustainable development policy that is resilient to environmental and climate change, President Rajapaksa said, explaining that another important step in this process is the decision to ban import of chemical fertilizers into the country.

“There has been a debate in the country on this issue over decades. The use of chemical fertilizers introduced to this country about 45 years ago has become a major social threat to our country. The widespread use of these chemicals has contaminated the soil and the water, and many experts believe that it has directly led to the increase in cancer and kidney diseases. The harm caused to human life by the use of chemical fertilizers must be identified and remedied.”

Although there has been a great deal of dialogue about the long-term damages it causes to the lives of people, no government has ever had the ability to make a direct decision in this regard, he continued.

The government’s move to ban the importation of chemical fertilizers is not a hasty decision, President Rajapaksa emphasized. 

“Prior to the implementation of that decision, stocks of fertilizer required for the forthcoming season were imported. Already 300,000 metric tons of fertilizer required for one and half million hectares of cultivated land were distributed. At the same time, about 8,000 metric tons of organic fertilizer were distributed.”

The President pledged that all organic fertilizer required for farming will be provided for the forthcoming Maha Season.

“With this policy decision, a large number of entrepreneurs and companies have come forward to produce organic fertilizer in the country.”

President Rajapaksa is confident that those who are of the opinion that agriculture cannot be developed without chemical fertilizers will surely see the long-term economic benefits of this decision in the future.

“Today, there is a great demand around the world for the products produced utilizing organic fertilizers,” he stated adding that a huge market will open up for Sri Lanka when the island nation is internationally recognized as a country that does not use chemical fertilizers. “Farmers and entrepreneurs can expect a very good price for their produce from it. There is a huge demand for organic food in the world. This is a unique opportunity for the country.”

“Therefore, the intelligent entrepreneurs should be prepared to reap the benefits of a prosperous future, rather than complaining about the current difficulties,” the President continued.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa - Address to the Nation 2021-06-25 by Adaderana Online on Scribd