COVID 3rd dose for immunocompromised over-20s rolled out from today

Sri Lanka today (November 20) commenced rolling out the third dose of COVID-19 vaccine for fully vaccinated immunocompromised and highly vulnerable comorbid individuals aged 20 years and above.

In a communiqué issued by the Director-General of Health Services Dr. Asela Gunawardena yesterday, it was noted that selected categories are eligible for prioritization for the third dose of COVID-19 vaccination:

• 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 accordingly administered to those who have completed two doses from any COVID-19 vaccine type and the time elapsed at least one month from the second dose.

The same consent form for adult COVID-19 vaccination is used for the third dose rollout.

Sri Lanka began an island-wide inoculation program to administer the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as the booster dose to people aged 60 years and above on November 17.

As per official data, 163,789 people in total have received the booster dose of COVID-19 vaccine so far.