Malé, Maldives – Maldives has decided to donate surplus 400,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh.
While Maldives had procured AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine from Singapore, the island nation also received the same vaccine doses from COVAX facility. In addition the Maldives has received vaccine donations of Covishield, Sinopharm and Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines.
The Maldives government decided to pay it forward and donate vaccine doses to neighbors after confirmation that that there would be a surplus in stock after vaccinating the eligible population of the country.
The 201,600 AstraZeneca vaccine shipment gifted to Bangladesh are set to be transported to the country on Friday. Maldives and Bangladesh signed the agreement regarding the donation on Wednesday.
Maldives launched the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in February 2021 with the goal to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to the resident population of Maldives. Maldives has received praise for practicing vaccine equity by vaccinating all residents regardless of their documentation status.
At present, 343،149 individuals have been fully vaccinated, with 392,773 inoculated with the first dose of Covid-19 vaccines in the Maldives.
