Health Minister: Maldives among countries that best managed Covid

Maldives is one of the countries that best handled the Covid-19 pandemic and showed an example to the world, states Health Minister Ahmed Naseem.

Naseem made the comment during a ceremony on Tuesday evening to recognize the efforts of healthcare workers involved in the national Covid-19 vaccination campaign.

Naseem said the Covid-19 situation had been critical when he assumed office in October 2020.

“Maldives was facing the Delta wave, and we worked well to minimize the risk from Covid,” he said.

Noting that Maldives’ death toll from Covid-19 stood at over 300, Naseem said each of the deaths were tragic.

He said Maldives managed to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic through the hard work of many, which resulted in the country being able to lift the state of public health emergency and resume normal life.

Naseem said that there wasn’t a single institution which had not contributed in some form to making the vaccination campaign successful, with 85 percent of the eligible population now fully vaccinated against the disease.

At Tuesday’s ceremony, certificates of appreciation were presented to 48 different institution that contributed to the vaccination campaign, including government institutions, companies, hospitals, and organizations and NGOs.

Maldives had launched the vaccination campaign in February last year.