ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s Health Ministry has extended the expiry date of the Pfizer Covid 19 vaccines already imported by three months on the recommendation of World Health Organization (WHO), Health Ministry said.
Ministry of Health in a statement said the Director of Regulation and Prequalification Department of WHO has communicated to the Director of the UNICEF Supply Division that the shelf life of the Pfizer BioNtech vaccine with unopened vials stored at temperatures between -90 to -60 degree Celsius.has been recommended to extended to 12 months from the earlier 9 months.
Upon the recommendation, the Ministry has officially extended the Pfizer vaccines vials received under FN 5436, FN 2898, FM 9281 and FM 5450 batches till 31.10.2022 from the initial date of expiry of 31.07.2022.
Sri Lanka has bought 18 million Pfizer vials as normal and booster doses. The Health Ministry has already recommended for people above 20 years to have the 2nd booster amid a lukewarm response from the public. The government officials have raised concerns of millions of balance vaccines expiring by end of this month.
In the initial phase, health authorities vaccinated 17.1 million people with the first dose mainly with Chinese Sinopharm and 14.5 million people have been administered with the second dose.
The booster dose was only administered to 8 million people and the second booster dose has been administered to only 15,280 so far.
Sri Lanka has seen a spike in the Covid-19 cases and deaths again since early this month, after relaxation of health restrictions. The health officials have now urged the public to wear masks again in indoor events as well as when traveling in public transport.
The fourth dose is still being administered in all national hospitals and Medical Officer of Health (MOH) offices in all areas. (Colombo/July 26/2022)
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Oh ! Dear how could they extend the expiry date. What a Sham.
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Oh ! Dear how could they extend the expiry date. What a Sham.
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s state-owned utility service provider, the National Water Supply and Drainage Board has announced an 11 hour water cut for several areas of Colombo on Saturday.
The Water Board said, Colombo 9, 10, 11 and 12 will have water cuts will be effective from 9 pm Saturday (30) till 8 am on Sunday (31).
Officials said the water cut is for the maintenance of power lines running through the area.
This is the second disruption to the same area within the month.
A similar water cut was implemented a week ago due to repairs of pipe lines in in Colombo 7,8,9, and 10 areas.
ECONOMYNEXT- Sri Lanka’s Colombo Dockyard, a unit of Japan’s Onomichi Dockyard said it had lost a shipbuilding contract after the Indian Ocean Island’s government defaulted on its foreign debt.
Sri Lanka was downgraded to selective default by rating agencies after it stopped paying foreign debt of commercial and bi-lateral lenders.
Colombo Dockyard said a contract to build two Commissioning Support Operation Vessels (CSOVs) for Norway’s Edda Wind AS was “mutually cancelled” following the downgrade.
“This decision had to be arrived solely due to the prevailing unstable economic and financial situation of the country” Colombo Dockyard said in a stock exchange filing.
“Due to the poor credit rating of SD “Selective Default” and significant scarcity of foreign currency liquidity in the country, it was impossible to issue required guarantees continuously and to receive the milestone payments from the buyer.
Colombo Dockyard said in order to retain the contract efforts were taken by involving the top level government authorities, both local and international banks and financial institutions and relevant diplomatic missions.
However, it said, a solution in the near future to regain the contracts is not possible.
“Considering the facts that the projects are still at their infant stage while foreseeing the greater risks for CDPLC in pursuing the projects, CDPLC’s Board has decided that a mutual cancellation was the most prudent option at this point”
Despite the cancellation of the Norway contract, seven shipbuilding projects for existing European and Scandinavian clients are progressing without any interference.
“With a high demand of ship-repair, and afloat repairs utilizing main port facilities in Sri Lanka ensure its business stability,” Colombo Dockyard said.
Colombo Dockyard said, even though the cancellation has a modest negative impact on the 2022’s financial performance, CDPLS’s growth concern remains intact, and the Board of CDPLC is confident that CDPLC can successfully manage the current projects in hand together with ship repairs and focusing on new avenues. (Colombo/ July 30/2022)
ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka stocks gained for the second session for the week on Friday pushed by energy and plantation shares while the index gained 4.6% in the month, the data showed.
The main All Share Price Index (ASPI) edged up 0.67% or 51.51 points to 7,731.15 from its lowest since July 18.
Analysts said the bourse bounced back to the green territory as investors confidently rallied predominantly in the plantation shares while the president Ranil Wickremesinghe’s call to establish an all-party government boosted the sentiment.
The buying being driven by the energy sector LIOC because of the price formula and the government not having sufficient fuel.
Lack of fuel in state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation means the Lanka IOC, a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), can increase its sales volume and that can lead to higher profits, analysts said.
Others said the plantation and LIOC shares were up because of better earning expectations in the June quarter.
The more liquid S&P SL20 index gained, closing at 0.76% or 18.48 points higher at 2,448.36.
Sri Lanka is facing its worst fuel and economic crisis in its post-independent era and the economy is expected to contract between 8-10% this year.
The turnover was 1.5 billion rupees, around a third of this year’s average daily turnover of 3.06 billion rupees.
The main ASPI has gained 4.6% in July so far after falling 9.3% in June, reversing a 6% gain in May. It lost 23% in April followed by a 14.5% fall in March.
The market has lost 36.7% so far this year after being one of the world’s best stock markets with an 80% return last year when large volumes of money were printed.
Sri Lanka’s sovereign debt default on April 12 has already led the country to be rated with restricted/selective default rating by rating agencies, which has weighed on investor sentiment.
Investors are also concerned over the steep fall of the rupee from 203 to 370 levels so far in 2022.
Richard Pieris leading the ASPI’s gain, closed 8.6% up at 19.00 rupees a share, Namunukula Plantation closed 24.9% up at 473.25 rupees a share, while Lanka IOC (LIOC) closed 6.1% up at 90.1 rupees. (Colombo/July 29/2022)
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