Malé, Maldives — Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) has given approval to use the Moderna COVID‑19 vaccine and the Janssen or Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine in Maldives.
MFDA stated that they only approved the vaccines after considering the Covid-19 situation in the Maldives to use it in “Restricted use in emergency situation”. The two vaccines were also approved to be administered to individuals above the age of 18.
MFDA assured that they approved these two vaccines after completing all the necessary documents, researching all the technical issues and after discussing with the professional advisories as well.
The Moderna and Janssen Covid-19 vaccine both include in the emergency use list of the World Health Organization (HPA). The Janssen vaccine is currently being used in 42 countries and the Modern vaccine in 49 countries.
MFDA noted that the authorities along with the Health Protection Agency (HPA) will be closely monitoring everything related to these two vaccines, especially the side effects that it would bring as all vaccines usually have possibilities of having certain side effects.
With the approval of Moderna and Janssen vaccine, The Maldives has approved the use of a total of six Covid-19 vaccine. They are Covisheild vaccine from India, Sinaphorm vaccine of China, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Sputnik V vaccine of Russia.
Apart from Sputnik V and the two vaccines that were given approval today, Maldives is using all the vaccines in the currently at present to protect the citizens against Covid-19. The country has so far vaccinated 311,325 individuals with the first dose of Covid-19 and 171,303 people with the second dose.