Sri Lanka began rolling out the third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine for fully vaccinated immunocompromised and highly vulnerable comorbid people aged 20 years and above yesterday, November 20.
A communiqué issued by the Director-General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena yesterday, stated that the following categories of people are eligible to get priority in receiving the third dose:
• Immunocompromised patients due to disease or treatment
• Patients with chronic kidney disease
• Solid organ, bone marrow or stem cell transplant recipients
• Patients with cancer whether on treatment or not
• Those with asplenia and splenic dysfunction
• Patients with any other immunosuppressed state on the recommendation or referral from the treating physician
The third dose is administered to those who have completed two doses of any Covid-19 vaccine, one month after the second dose. A consent form is required for the third dose of the vaccine as well. An islandwide inoculation program to administer the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as the booster dose to people aged 60 and above began on November 17.
According to the Epidemiology Unit, 203,733 people had received the Covid-19 booster dose by last week.