Colombo, May 27 (IANS): Amid a third wave of the pandemic, the Sri Lankan government has received another batch of Sinopharm vaccines against Covid-19 donated by the Chinese government.

The vaccines which arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport Tuesday night from Beijing were received by Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Qi Zhenhong and handed over to Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi, reports Xinhua news agency.

This shipment of vaccines was the second batch to arrive in Sri Lanka.

The first batch had arrived in the island nation in March.

Sri Lanka's vaccination program is currently in operation mainly in the most severely affected districts in the Western Province such as Colombo, Gampaha, and Kalutara.

According to the information from the Ministry of Health, as of May 16, more than 1.315 million had been vaccinated.

Of these 375,000 had been given the Sinopharm vaccine.

Sri Lanka has been facing a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases within the past month as health experts warned that a new variant of the coronavirus was fast spreading in all districts.

According to official figures, over 50,000 cases have been recorded within the past month amid a resurgence of the virus in the island nation.

The country has registered a total of 172,277 Covid-19 cases and 1,298 deaths so far.