Male’, Maldives – Former Commander of MNDF Male’ Area, Ibrahim Mohamed Didi said that the Covid-19 vaccines would not be available free of charge to all the citizens and would rather be sold if it was a PPM government.
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih recently said that all the citizens of Maldives will have access to the Covid-19 vaccine free of charge. However, Former Economic Minister and current MP of Maavashu Constituency Mohamed Saeed said that the statement from the President is not entirely true and that the vaccines have been bought for the Maldivian citizens by friendly countries and associations.
Replying to the comments from Saeed, Didi said that if it were a PPM government, the vaccines would be sold to the citizens even if the vaccines were gifted from a friendly country. He then raised the question whether there would be any country to purchase vaccines for Maldivian citizens in a PPM government.
Maldives separated from commonwealth, used parliament members to raise voice in the parliament and serrated from the world except one country during PPM’s reign. If the pandemic came in such a situation, who would donate vaccines for Maldivian citizens?
said, Didi
Health Ministry said that efforts are being made to bring two vaccines into Maldives. This includes the Astrazeneca vaccine of Oxford University and the vaccine produced by Moderna, a biotechnology company of America. Health Minister said that these two vaccines are the most appropriate ones to be imported into Maldives considering the environment conditions and the storage requirements of the vaccine.
Maldives has already started the necessary preparations for the administration of vaccines which is expected to be available within the first quarter of 2021. A national steering committee has also been put together and the priority groups to whom the vaccine needs to be administered have also been identified.
