Sri Lanka approves AstraZeneca vaccine amid health system collapse warning

Sri Lankan municipal workers wait as they prepare for the cremation of a Covid-19 victim (Eranga Jayawardena/AP)

Sri Lanka has approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for Covid-19 amid warnings from doctors that frontline health workers should be quickly inoculated to prevent the medical system from collapsing.

Minister for pharmaceutical production and regulation Channa Jayasumana said the vaccine is the first to be approved for emergency use in Sri Lanka, while several other candidates are in the pipeline at the National Medicines Regulatory Authority.