The Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Sunday, revealed that more than 9,700 individuals were inoculated till date as part of Maldives’ ongoing COVID-19 vaccination programme.
As the government officially commenced its vaccine roll-out on February 1, the aforementioned figure represents the number of people authorities were successfully able to vaccinate within the first week of the programme.
At present, vaccines are being administered from six health facilities in the Greater Male’ Region as well as 14 regions outside the capital. The designated locations in the capital consist of Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH), ADK Hospital, Treetop Hospital, Hulhumale’ Hospital, Senahiya Military Hospital and Villimale’ Hospital. The remaining vaccination points are located in Kulhudhuffushi City in Haa Dhaalu Atoll and Addu City.
The Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) approved the India-gifted COVISHIELD vaccines for restricted use in “emergency situations”, defined by the Health Protection Agency (HPA), for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, subjected to various regulatory provisions.
Maldives received 100,000 doses of the COVISHIELD vaccine, constituting enough to vaccinate 50,000 people.
As per the authorities, vaccines would initially be administered to frontline health professionals and individuals at a high risk of developing complications such as people aged 50 and above.
COVISHIELD was manufactured by the world’s largest vaccine producer Serum Institute of India, using a formula prepared in a collaborative effort by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. British Medicine and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency approved the vaccine on December 30, 2020.
After a long period of recording low numbers towards the end of 2020, Maldives is now experiencing its third wave of the pandemic, with the introduction of the United Kingdom’s highly contagious virus variant.
In response to the spike in numbers, HPA tightened several safety measures including the introduction of a new curfew in the capital region, which prohibits civilians from roads and public spaces between 2300 to 0430 hrs, while vehicle movements are banned between 2030 to 0430 hrs.
Currently, the Maldives records a total of 16,783 virus cases of which 2,117 are active cases, in addition to 14,604 recoveries and 55 deaths.
On March 12, 2020, WHO classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. To date, the new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 1 billion people and claimed over 2.3 million lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 78.5 million people have recovered.
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Source URL: Google News
