Male’, Maldives —The Health Protection Agency (HPA) announced that 24% of the Maldives’ eligible population has been vaccinated with two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
The vaccination program of Maldives, “Covid-19 Dhifaau” commenced on February 1, 2021 and since then Covid-19 vaccine was administered throughout the country to all eligible participants.
HPA informs that so far, the country has vaccinated a total of 297,639 with the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine; this is 67.69% of Maldives’ eligible population, while 108,494 people have been administered with two doses of the vaccine; this is 24.67% of the eligible population in the Maldives.
At present, the Covishield vaccination in the greater Malé area has come to a stop until further notice as the Spokesperson of the Presidents Office, Mohamed Mabrouq Azeez said that the Covid-19 vaccine stock in Maldives is low. While the government has refused to disclose the amount of Covid-19 vaccine doses remaining in the country, Health Minister of Maldives, Ahmed Naseem had told earlier that Maldives will receive the 700,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine procured from AstraZeneca Singapore Pte Ltd starting from June 2021.
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 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.
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 of Maldives with two doses of Covid-19 vaccine.
