The President Office says following a request from President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, a team of 23 Bangladeshi healthcare professionals from the Bangladesh Air Force will arrive in the Maldives today to assist in the “Covid-19 Dhifaau” country-wide vaccination drive.
It said that making the Covid-19 vaccine equitably accessible to all Maldivian nationals and migrant workers — documented and undocumented migrant workers alike — is a key policy of the Government’s Covid response.
It also said that the President has on several occasions made public the government’s decision to ensure fair and equitable access by everyone, citizens and expatriates alike, to vaccines.
The President’s request was conveyed by Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid during his recent visit to Dhaka, Bangladesh, from February 10 to 11, 2021.
During talks with his counterpart, Minister Shahid conveyed President Solih’s request for the involvement of a team of healthcare professionals from Bangladesh in the vaccination drive in the Maldives.
The President's Office confirmed that the Bangladeshi government had accepted President Solih’s invitation and that the government of Bangladesh is sending a team comprised of 11 nurses, 10 medical assistants, and an anesthesiologist, who will collaborate with local healthcare professionals.
The two-month assignment will see their deployment in Malé City and regional hospitals and healthcare centers across the country.
The President's Office also said that the team’s input will prove highly useful to the inoculation drive as it will enable migrant workers, many of whom come from Bangladesh, to overcome linguistic barriers that might have prevented them from accessing vaccination facilities.
Last month, the Maldives inoculated the first batch of migrant workers under the vaccination drive.
The Maldives is making headway in its bid to vaccinate the whole population against Covid-19, providing the first dose of the vaccine to 123,665 individuals till yesterday.
