Male’, Maldives —The Foreign Minister of Maldives, Abdullah Shahid has stated that Maldives is expected to receive additional 100,000 doses of Covidshield vaccine this week.
While speaking at the ceremony held to present the Sinopharm Covid-19 Vaccine donation to Maldives from China, Minister Shahid stated that the Government of India has given assurance this morning that the Maldives will receive additional 100,000 doses of the Covidshield vaccine within this week.
BBC reported last night that India has placed a temporary hold on all exports of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine, however, Maldives will be receiving the first shipment of the 300,000 doses ordered from Serum Institute of India this week due to the friendly diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Maldives received the first shipment of Sinopharm Covid-19 Vaccine from the Chinese government today with the country receiving 100,000 doses of the vaccine for the first batch. In a ceremony held at the Foreign Ministry this morning, Chinese Ambassador to Maldives Zhang Lizhong presented the vaccine to Health Minister Ahmed Naseem. Minister Shahid revealed that while the 1st batch of the vaccines arrived late last night, the 2nd batch of the vaccines is scheduled to be received by 30th of this month.
The arrival of these vaccines will facilitate a smooth vaccination campaign to reach herd immunity for the Maldives.
