The Cabinet has approved a Rs. 5,431 million project to establish a dedicated Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and upgrade national laboratory facilities, Cabinet Spokesman and Health Minister Nalinda Jayatissa said, EconomyNext reported.
The project covers 35 identified activities under the Integrated One Health Pandemic Preparedness and Response Strengthening Project, running from 2026 to 2028, with all work scheduled to conclude by 31 March 2028.
What gets built
Asked whether the facility would be an entirely new institution, Jayatissa confirmed a standalone centre.
“On land belonging to the Ministry of Health in Mulleriyawa, we intend to construct a building of approximately 7,200 square meters as this CDC.”
Alongside the centre, the project modernises five existing pharmaceutical warehouses, upgrades the National Medicines Regulatory Authority laboratory, and improves physical infrastructure at the Medical Research Institute’s National Public Health Reference Laboratory. The Asian Development Bank is expected to fund the CDC’s establishment.
The money
| Component | Amount |
|---|---|
| Grant | Rs. 4,785 million |
| Government of Sri Lanka | Rs. 646 million |
| Total | Rs. 5,431 million |
The two components sum exactly to the headline figure. The Daily Mirror adds that Sri Lanka signed the grant agreement on 20 March 2025, and that the proposal came from the Minister of Health and Mass Media.
The two reports name the funder differently
This is worth stating plainly rather than smoothing over. EconomyNext attributes the Rs. 4,785 million grant to the Pandemic Fund. The Daily Mirror calls it the Epidemic Fund in one place and the Health Epidemics and Response Strengthening Project in another.
The Daily Mirror’s own description settles it. It describes the body as “a partnership involving donor countries, co-investors, foundations and civil society organisations” — which is the Pandemic Fund’s standard description of itself, and not a description of a project. On the two filings available, the grant-making body is the Pandemic Fund and the Daily Mirror’s “Epidemic Fund” is a rendering of the same name. Readers tracking the grant should search the former.
Why it was proposed
Jayatissa grounded the project in the country’s pandemic experience.
“Sri Lanka’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and other zoonotic health threats has revealed shortcomings and gaps in national response mechanisms across both the human and animal health sectors.”
Both reports note that routine vaccination coverage exceeds 95% and that Sri Lanka has made substantial progress on communicable disease control and maternal and child health — the gaps identified are in surveillance and emergency response, across human and animal health together, which is what the “One Health” framing in the project’s title refers to.
The action plan for 2026–2028 was drawn up with international funding partners.
Not reported
Neither filing gives a construction timetable for the Mulleriyawa building, says how much of the Rs. 5.43 billion goes to the centre as against the warehouse and laboratory upgrades, or states the size of the ADB’s expected contribution to the CDC — which, if additional to the Rs. 5,431 million, would make the headline figure an understatement. Neither says who will staff or run the centre, or how it will relate to the existing Epidemiology Unit.
Sources: EconomyNext, Daily Mirror.
