Health Minister Ahmed Naseem has stated that the Maldives will procure more varieties of COVID-19 vaccines including the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine.
In clinical trials, the Pfizer vaccine proved 95 percent effective after two doses in preventing coronavirus infection. The vaccine has been validated by the World Health Organization (WHO).
While Minister Naseem has given assurance that the Pfizer vaccine will be available in the Maldives, the minister did not provide details regarding the other vaccines that will be available in the Maldives in the future.
The Maldives began its COVID-19 vaccination program on Monday morning. Thirty-six individuals, including the President, Speaker of Parliament, Chief Justice, state dignitaries, frontline healthcare staff, and elderly and persons with comorbidities, received their initial dose of the two-dose vaccine in capital Male’.
The “COVISHIELD” brand vaccine administered on Monday was developed by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and has the same formula as the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The government aims to vaccinate the entire population of the country within seven months.
