Sri Lanka will need Russia's help in gaining access to the vaccine against the COVID-19 pandemic, which is currently being developed by Moscow, the country's new Ambassador to Russia, Prof. M.D. Lamawansa, told Sputnik in his first interview since being appointed
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th June, 2020) Sri Lanka will need Russia's help in gaining access to the vaccine against the COVID-19 pandemic, which is currently being developed by Moscow, the country's new Ambassador to Russia, Prof. M.D. Lamawansa, told Sputnik in his first interview since being appointed.
On Tuesday, the Russian Health Ministry's Sechenov University announced administering a vaccine against COVID-19 to a second group of 20 volunteers. On the same day, the Russian Defense Ministry announced the vaccination of a second group of volunteers at the Acad. N.N.Burdenko Main Military Clinical Hospital.
"Although we have managed to do well with the pandemic so far, we will require assistance from Russia especially in vaccination. When it comes to the stage that Russia is ready to commence producing vaccine in mass scale, Sri Lanka will approach for assistance," Lamawansa said.
Russia has supported Sri Lanka during the pandemic by buying even more tea produced by the island, the ambassador noted, and he went on to laud Russia's approach to dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak.
"As a medical professional I can say that Russia took several meaningful steps to curb the COVID-19 and consequently and very importantly your death rate is very low. Russia has achieved something remarkable and I know how difficult it is for the medical staff under difficult and restrained conditions to achieve such impressive results," Lamawansa said.
As the world keeps struggling against the pandemic, multiple countries are working on vaccines to prevent it from spreading further.
