Malé, Maldives – Health Protection Agency (HPA) has announced that relevant authorities have initiated investigations into the demise of an elderly, bed ridden Covid-19 recipient.
HPA tweeted today, revealing that an individual who received the Covishield Covid-19 vaccine passed away today, and that a full investigation is being carried out to confirm the cause of death, as per protocol.
With this, it was stressed that serious events including death can occur unrelated to the vaccine, and that details of the investigation would be shared once it is concluded.
As of now, more than 64,000 people have received the vaccination in the Maldives, and this is the first time serious side effects have been reported following the vaccine.
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.
