Male’, Maldives — The Health Emergency Operation Center (HEOC) of Maldives informed that they will not force any citizen to get vaccinated for Covid-19.
HEOC has prioritized public awareness about the Covid-19 vaccine and informed recently that they will not force any citizen of Maldives to administer the Covid-19 vaccine.
Meanwhile, HEOC emphasized that administering the Covid-19 vaccine will provide an additional help in controlling the spread of Covid-19 and to also help the country end the State of Publish Health Emergency.
Even if we consider one citizen, we know that if that citizen gets the vaccine, they will be protecting themselves from the virus along with any other high risk individual they could’ve transferred it to.
HEOC
Maldives received its first Covid-19 vaccine shipment on 20 January 2021. The first shipment consisted of 100,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine which is expected to be administered to 50,000 individuals – health workers and frontliners are given priority.
HPA stressed that the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine currently in Maldives will only be be administered to the residents of the country after getting approved by the Food and Drug Authority of the Maldives (MFDA), following thorough investigations into the safety of the jab.
While the Covishield vaccine is currently being tested by MFDA, the country is preparing for the actual vaccination procedures and working on registering those who want to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, for which a dedicated online portal, my.health.mv has been launched.
As per the current priority categories, the vaccine will be first administered to health and social workers, followed by individuals above the age of 50. After this, individuals between the age of 18-50 who fall in the high risk category will also be receiving the shot. Next in line to receive the shot would be teachers, police and tourism industry personnel.
