US donates over 100,000 additional doses of Pfizer vaccines to Maldives

The United States government has donated 100,620 additional doses of Pfizer vaccines to Maldives under the COVAX program.

The latest donation adds to the 439,920 doses of Pfizer vaccines the US donated to Maldives throughout 2021 and in January 2022.

The US Mission in Maldives states the vaccines were donated to help Maldivians to get boosted, preventing new infections and the spread of new COVID-19 variants.

The US, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), is also supporting Maldives to distribute and deliver vaccines across the atolls, train health workers, and encourage people to get vaccinated safely and effectively.

Andrea Appell, the Chargé d’Affaires for the US Mission to Maldives, said US’s COVID-19 response efforts, including vaccine donations, reflected the generosity of the American people.

“We are leveraging the ingenuity of American scientists and manufacturing with our logistics and global operations know-how to help vaccinate the world,” she said.

Since the pandemic first broke out in 2020, USAID has provided more than USD 7 million in COVID-19 assistance, and an in-kind donation of 60 ventilators, to Maldives.

The assistance provided life-saving treatment, strengthened clinical care, mobilized 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.

Worldwide, the US has pledged more than 1.2 billion vaccines and as of April 2022, delivered more than 533 million to 115 countries. The US es is also the largest donor to the global vaccine initiative, COVAX.