Maldives has received the second batch of the 200,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Sinopharm, which was donated by the Government of China.
The remaining 100,000 doses of the vaccine was brought to the Maldives on a special national airline flight arranged by Island Aviation Services Limited (IASL) on March 30. On Twitter, Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid expressed appreciation to the government and people of China for their generous contributions to vaccine rollout efforts in the Maldives, and thanked Ambassador of China to the Maldives Zhang Lizhong.
The use of Sinopharm vaccine was approved by the Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) on March 15. The first batch of the Chinese-made vaccines was brought to the Maldives on March 24, and was handed over to the government on March 25.
In addition to Sinopharm, MFDA has also approved the use of Serum Institute of India (SII)’s Covishield and German biotechnology company BioNTech's Pfizer vaccine. However, the Pfizer vaccine has not yet been administered in the Maldives.
Over 235,000 Maldivians have received the first dose of the vaccine, which is 47% of the population. Health Protection Agency (HPA) is preparing to roll out the second dose on April 3.