President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has announced the COVID-19 vaccination of all children aged 12-17 will commence next week. He made the announcement at a press conference held on August 11.
Underscoring the government's priority to fully inoculate the Maldives' population, President Solih went into detail about the efforts of the government to procure sufficient vaccines, leading to the nation successfully becoming one of the first in the world to initiate COVID-19 vaccination. In this regard, President Solih revealed the state has successfully acquired enough doses of the Pfizer vaccine to immunise all children in the Maldives between the ages of 12 and 17 years. He also noted the Maldives has now successfully acquired enough doses of the vaccine to inoculate the entire population.
Highlighting the new normal that the Maldives had achieved, President Solih stated the Maldives' economy had improved respectively in its journey to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. As such, he revealed that exports had improved by 19% compared to July of last year, while imports had increased by 45% for the same duration. Similarly, he noted state earnings had increased by 14% and tax revenue had increased by 23% compared to the previous year.
President Solih also shed light on the work underway to restore the tourism industry. He announced that 93% of all tourism industry workers had received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, including 96% of all resort workers and 100% of all border control staff.
Ending his opening statement, the president reiterated that the new normal would only be successful if the entire population is inoculated against the COVID-19 pandemic. The president beseeched all members of the public to support the nationwide mass vaccination programme and the drive to inoculate all children between the ages of 12 and 17. He called on all members of the public who had not yet been immunised to get vaccinated as soon as possible to protect themselves and their loved ones from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 80% of the eligible population in the Maldives have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 69% have completed both doses of the vaccine thus far. Under the ongoing nationwide mass vaccination programme, the government aims to fully inoculate 90% of the eligible population by the end of August 2021.