COVID-19: Almost 1 lakh Maldivians inoculated with made in India Covishield vaccines

Maldives’ Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC) on Saturday said that it has inoculated close to 1 lakh population with the Indian manufactured COVID-19 vaccine Covishield dispatched under India’s generous Vaccine Maitri' initiative. At least 98,511 civilians have been immunized against the deadly coronavirus infection with jabs manufactured by the world’s largest Serum Institute of India (SII). In an official statement, HEOC spokesperson, Dr. Fathmath Nazla Rafeeq said that Maldives commenced the vaccination campaign across the entire island country except for HA Muraidhoo and V Fulidhoo islands, where resources are limited and the population is comparatively low. However, the country plans to dispatch mobile teams in these remote islands to get the civilians vaccinated against COVID-19 soon. 

Maldives that started the mass inoculation campaign on February 1, has immunized at least 19 percent of its total 557,426 population, according to statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), cited by ANI. Thus far, India has dispatched a total of 229.7 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccines to countries worldwide, of which, 64.7 lakh doses were donated as grants, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in a release. India’s generous efforts were started in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to making the medicinal product available for all of humanity to combat the global pandemic and oppose vaccine nationalism.

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Maldivian minister expresses gratitude

Earlier, Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid received his first jab of the Indian manufactured 'Covishield' vaccine shot. The Maldivian minister expressed gratitude for India’s COVID-19 vaccination shipment and hailed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision that put ‘vaccine nationalism’ far behind and made the vials available for the island nation. “Government of Maldives begins COVID19 vaccination for all in the Maldives with no discrimination based on nationality,” the Maldivian minister wrote on Twitter, addressing the government of India and Indian citizens. He thanked India in his heartfelt post for its ‘generosity' in providing the vaccines, as he was being inoculated at a healthcare center. Shahid shared the footage of his vaccination, as he said “a big thank you” to the Indian administration for its efforts. 

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