The US government has donated 100,620 additional doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to the Maldives through the COVAX facility.
The donation adds to the 439,920 doses of Pfizer vaccines the US donated to the Maldives throughout 2021 and in January 2022. In addition, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is supporting the Maldives to distribute and deliver these vaccines across the atolls, train health workers, and encourage people to get vaccinated safely and effectively.
Charge' d'affaires of the US to the Maldives Andrea Appell said the COVID-19 response efforts of the US, including vaccination donations, reflect the true generosity of the American people, and that they are leveraging the ingenuity of American scientists and manufacturing with their logistics and global operations know-how to help vaccinate the world.
Since the pandemic first broke out in March 2020, USAID has provided more than USD7 million in COVID-19 assistance, plus an in-kind donation of 60 ventilators, to the Maldives. This assistance provided life-saving treatment strengthened clinical care, mobilised critical supplies to strengthen the response, helped expand social protection services, and supported the development of effective economic, fiscal, and monetary measures in response to the pandemic.
The US has pledged more than 1.2 billion vaccines worldwide and delivered more than 533 million to 115 countries. The US is also the largest donor to the global vaccine initiative, COVAX.