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Sri Lankan proposes to establish COVID-19 regional knowledge hub

Xinhua | Updated: 2021-09-23 16:40

A man receives the COVID-19 vaccine in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Sept 6, 2021. [Photo/Xinhua]

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka has proposed to establish a regional knowledge hub in its capital city Colombo in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) to facilitate the exchange of lessons learned from COVID-19 and support countries to build back better, a statement from the President's Office said here Thursday.

The statement, quoting President Gotabaya Rajapaksa as speaking at the 76th Session of United Nations General Assembly, said although Sri Lanka is a developing country, it has been very successful in its vaccination program as a mass scale vaccination drive has been underway across the country.

"We have already fully vaccinated nearly all those above the age of 30. Everyone over the age of 20 will be fully vaccinated by the end of October. We will start vaccinating children over 15 years of age in the near future," Rajapaksa said.

"The rapid progress of vaccinations was enabled by coordinated efforts between healthcare workers, armed forces and police personnel, government servants, and elected officials," the president added.

He further said that Sri Lanka also benefitted greatly from the financial and material support provided by bilateral and multilateral donors to manage the pandemic, and thanked those nations and institutions for their generosity.

He added that the increased global cooperation visible during this ongoing crisis was greatly encouraging.

The president said the economic impact of the pandemic had been especially severe on developing countries and this had placed the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals at considerable risk.

"It is vital for more initiatives, including development financing and debt relief to be adopted through international mechanisms to support developing nations and help them emerge from this uncertain situation," Rajapaksa said.

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