Malé, Maldives – Health Protection Agency (HPA) has revealed that a total of 7,818 people were vaccinated today, raising the sum of those vaccinated in the Maldives to 64,048.
Out of this, 5,998 doses were administered in the Malé area while 1,820 doses were administered in the atolls. With todays vaccinations, a total of 49,836 people from Malé area and 14,212 from the atolls have received their first dose of Covishield vaccine.
Spokesperson of Health Emergency Operations Center, Dr Nazla Rafeeg had informed earlier today that the second dose of Covishield vaccine will be administered after 8 weeks from the first dose.
According to Dr Nazla the decision has been taken after taking into account, recent research and advice from World Health Organization (WHO) and Maldives Technical Advisory Group on Immunization ( MTAGI).
Health Protection Agency (HPA) also announced the start of vaccination for everyone above 35 years of age as well as high risk groups between 18 and 35 years of age today.
HPA announced that vaccination is in progress for these groups starting from February 18 onward. Vaccination is available from Social Centre, Islamic Centre and Hulhumalé Vaccination Centre (previously flu clinic) between 09:00 to 17:00 as well as the Villimalé Youth Centre from 09:00 to 13:00.
The vaccine currently being administered in Maldives is the Covishield vaccine, licensed by AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, in collaboration with Oxford University, and mass produced by the Serum Institute of India.
Maldives received 100,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine from India, which is currently in use, while additional 700,000 doses procured by the country are to be received within the March. However, the country will receive the vaccine shipment from World Health Organization (WHO), which would be sufficient to vaccinate at least 20 percent of the population of the country, with in the upcoming two weeks.
While China has also decided to donate 100,000 vaccines to the country, Maldives already received 5,000 doses of the Chinese made sinopharm vaccine via a donor Health Protection Agency has not yet named.
