Malé, Maldives – Health Protection Agency (HPA) announced that work is in progress to bring in another shipment of Covishield vaccine within 2 weeks.
HPA informs that due to the pandemic crisis in the Indian subcontinent, there is difficulty in receiving Covid-19 vaccine supply. Therefore, Covishield vaccination is cancelled for greater Malé area until further notice except for emergency situations.
Maldives has signed to procure 300,000 doses of Covishield, of which the country has received 100,000 doses.
The statement by HPA said that Maldives will receive the 700,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca Singapore Pte Ltd starting from June 2021.
The decision comes after Spokesperson of the Presidents Office, Mohamed Mabrouq Azeez said that the Covid-19 vaccine stock in Maldives is low at last nights press conference.
Following a question by a journalist about the vaccine stock in the country during last nights Health Emergency Operations Centers (HEOC) press conference revealing additional restrictive measures to curb down the spread of Covid-19 virus in the nation, Mabrouq stated that the current stock of Covid-19 vaccine in the country was low but dodged from giving the quantity stating that he did not have the figures with him.
Minister Naseem also said that plans are underway to procure required doses of Pfizer vaccine to inoculate the 12,000 individuals aged 16 to 18. Health Minister said that the goal is to vaccinate 80 percent of the population with two doses of Covid-19 vaccine.
Maldives signed an agreement to procure 700,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University in the first week of January 2021. Maldives has also purchased additional 300,000 doses of Covishield vaccine Serum Institute of India (SII) due to the delay in receiving the 700,000 doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine and received the first batch of 100,000 doses from SII, India. Covishield is mass produced by the Serum Institute of India using the Oxford-Astrazeneca license.
Maldives received 200,000 doses of Covishield and additional 200,000 doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine from India and China as donations. Additional 18,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine was donated by anonymous benefactors. The country received further 5,850 doses of Pfizer vaccine and 12,000 doses of Covishield through the WHO COVAX facility.
