Malé, Maldives – Vaccination of Covishield second dose has started in four centers of the capital city, Malé today.
The second dose of Covishield vaccine, developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII), is in progress two months after the first dose was administered. The first dose of Covishield was administered from 1 February to 15 March 2021.
Health Protection Agency (HPA) advises eligible individuals, those who have received the first dose during the aforementioned period, to bring their Dhifaafu Covid-19 vaccination card and national identity card or driver’s license to the vaccine center. Individuals visiting the vaccination centers to get inoculated must be free from fever or other flu symptoms and must not be a direct of a confirmed Covid-19 case. HPA also advises to eat well before getting the jab.
While Maldives is still administering first dose vaccine, the current vaccine available for general population is Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine, Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine is being administered for individuals in special categories.
Maldives received 200,000 doses of Covishield as a donation from India which was used for the first round of vaccination and purchased additional 200,000 doses to administer as the second dose.
Those who had been given the first dose of the Covishield vaccine will receive Covishield vaccine as their 2nd dose vaccine, same goes for Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine.
Maldives has authorized three vaccines for emergency use; Covishield, Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine and Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine.
The Covid-19 Dhifaau program was launched on February 1 with the aim of inoculating all eligible resident population of the Maldives. Maldives has been lauded for practising vaccine equity in the International arena for giving free and equal access to vaccines to migrants regardless of their legal status. A total of 241,127 individuals have received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, including 132,044 from Greater Malé Area and 109,083 from atolls.
