Maldives receives 5,850 doses of Pfizer vaccine

Maldives has received 5,850 doses of the Pfizer vaccine through the COVAX facility to support the country’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign.

The vaccine shipment arrived in Maldives on Thursday evening.

The arrival of the vaccine shipment has been confirmed by UNICEF, which is supporting the Maldivian government in public communication, supply, logistics and cold chain management for the vaccination campaign.

More vaccines have arrived!

Maldives has received 5,850 doses of Pfizer vaccines sent by COVAX facility to support the #COVID19 vaccination campaign.@UNICEF is supporting Gov. of Maldives in public communication, supply, logistics & cold chain management for the vaccination. pic.twitter.com/zw4a8Dr3yT

— UNICEF Maldives (@UNICEFMaldives) March 25, 2021

Maldives Food and Drug Authority authorized emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine on March 14. The vaccine must be stored at -70 degree Celsius. And Health Emergency Operations Center (HEOC) has previously stated Maldives has the capacity to handle the vaccine.

The arrival of Pfizer vaccine shipment comes after Maldives received 100,000 of the 200,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine pledged by the Chinese government earlier this Thursday. The remaining 100,000 doses are expected to arrive in Maldives on March 30.

Maldives Food and Drug Authority has approved emergency use of three COVID-19 vaccines; the Pfizer vaccine, the Sinopharm vaccine, and the Covishield vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.

Maldives began its COVID-19 vaccination program on February 1 with the Covishield vaccine. The first round of the vaccination program was conducted using 200,000 doses of Covishield donated by India and an additional 12,000 doses Maldives received through the COVAX facility.

Maldives began the second round of vaccinations on March 22 with the Sionapharm vaccine.

Maldives has also ordered 1 million more doses of the Covishield vaccine – 700,000 doses through an agreement with AstraZeneca and 300,000 doses through an agreement with Serum Institute of India.

Over 225,000 people have been inoculated under the COVID-19 vaccination program.