International Affairs

While coronavirus infection rates and hospitalizations continue to plummet across the United States, the White House COVID-19 Response Team said Tuesday the Delta variant strain of the virus that causes the disease still poses a threat, particularly among the younger population.

Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Lebanon and South Africa have previously enabled similar moves in their efforts to save lives and reduce COVID cases
Malaysia has joined scores of other countries in allowing the private purchase of WHO-approved vaccines in a bid to save lives and stop the rapid spread of COVID-19.

AFP: Foreign experts have been deployed to help Sri Lanka contain a potential oil leak from a burnt-out container ship partially sunk off Colombo, the ship's operator said Friday.

ආරක්ෂක අමාත්‍යාංශයේ ඇස් වසා සමන්තාගේ බැටෑලියන් එක මෙරටට ඇතුළු වූ විදිහ එළිවේ

Several Bangladesh media outlets over the weekend reported that the country hasn’t yet reached a deal on the commercial purchase of COVID-19 vaccine Sinopharm quoting Chinese officials.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday requested assistance from the United Kingdom to evaluate the impact on the environment from the wrecked MV X-Press Pearl container vessel.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov who had a telephone conversation with his Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Gunawardane said Russia was fully cooperative of the initiative to co-produce its Sputnik V vaccine here and asked the Sri Lankan authorities to expedite the process.

චීනයේ ගුවැන්ෂූ නගරයේ නව කොරෝනා පොකුරක් පැතිර යමින් තිබෙනවා. විදෙස් වාර්තා සදහන් කළේ මේ හේතුවෙන් එම නගරයේ මහ පරිමාණ කොවිඩ් පරීක්ෂණ වැඩසටහනක් ආරම්භ කර ඇති බවයි. ගුවැන්ෂූ නගරයෙන් වාර්තා වන නව කොවිඩ් පොකුරෙන් මේ වන විට ආසාදිතයින් 73 දෙනෙකු හදුනාගෙන තිබෙනවා.

GENEVA - More than 2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been disbursed in 212 countries. However, the World Health Organization said the distribution has been far from equal. It notes 75% of doses have gone to just 10 countries, with three countries — China, the United States and India — accounting for 60% of all doses.

BANGKOK (AFP): Thailand launched a mass COVID-19 vaccination drive yesterday as it seeks to beat a third wave of infections and reboot its vital tourism industry, which has been devastated by pandemic travel curbs.

When the leaders of the world’s industrialized nations meet next week in Cornwall, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will ask them to commit to “vaccinate the entire world against coronavirus by the end of 2022,” according to a statement Saturday.

කොරෝනා වෛරසයේ ව්‍යාප්තිය හමුවේ බ්‍රිතාන්‍යය මගින් ශ්‍රී ලංකාව රතු ලැයිස්තුවට ඇතුළත් කර තිබෙනවා. ඒ අනුව බ්‍රිතාන්‍යය රජය විසින් එරට පුරවැසියන්ට දැනුම් දී ඇත්තේ අත්‍යවශ්‍ය කරුණකට හැර ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ සංචාරය නොකරන ලෙසයි.

Reuters: Meghan, Britain’s Duchess of Sussex, has given birth to her second child, a girl, whom she and husband Prince Harry have named after Queen Elizabeth and his late mother Princess Diana.

Reuters: A US plan to quickly share COVID-19 vaccine doses with poorer countries is an “important start” but more shots are urgently needed to cover a gap caused by Indian supply disruptions and manufacturing delays, a WHO senior adviser said on Friday.

The owners of Singapore-registered MV X-press Pearl which caught fire off Colombo Port have agreed to make an interim payment to Sri Lanka for the damage done to the marine environment of the country, an official said.

In a nationwide address Monday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the federal government would take a larger role in obtaining vaccines for Indian states.

Sri Lanka on Thursday formally called on the US House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) not to proceed with H. RES. 413 on Sri Lanka moved by Congresswoman Deborah Ross (Democrat/North Carolina) on 18 May.

Sri Lanka is among the Asian countries the United States of America has allocated approximately seven million vaccine doses as per the strategy for global vaccine sharing unveiled by the Biden-Harris administration yesterday.