• Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Friday ordered officials to use COVID-19 social security funds to buy basic medicines as the country faces a shortage of medicines during the economic crisis.
• The president said the funds could be used for other health needs as the South Asian epidemic is under control.
• Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented economic crisis due to a lack of everyday products such as medicines, fuel and food due to a lack of foreign currency.

President of Sri Lanka Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Friday ordered officials to use COVID-19 social security funds to buy basic medicines as the country faces a shortage of medicines during the economic crisis.

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The president’s media department said in a statement that Rajapaksa has placed an order for about $ 600,000 in the COVID-19 Health and Social Security Fund raised from donors during the COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years to finance important imported medicines for hospitals. The president said the funds could be used for other health needs as the South Asian epidemic is under control.

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Sri Lanka is facing an unprecedented economic crisis due to a lack of everyday products such as medicines, fuel and food due to a lack of foreign currency. The president’s media department said that with 234 hospital medicines being produced locally and drug prices rising in global markets, the president must use India’s line of credit to improve local production and import production materials.

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