Maldives Food and Drug Authority MFDA has approved the use of the Sinopharm COVID vaccine by China and Pfizer COVID vaccine by the US in the Maldives in the bid to immunize its population against the COVID-19 pandemic
Speaking at a press conference, Deputy Director-General at MFDA Aishath Mohamed said that both the vaccines were given Emergency Usage Approval yesterday.
She said that both the vaccine requires two doses for them to be effective.
Speaking at the same news conference, Health Emergency Operations Center HEOC Spokesperson Dr. Fathimath Nazla Rafeeq said that the Snopharm vaccine would be administered to individuals between the ages of 18 to 60 years of age.
She also assured that local authorities have been preparing to receive the vaccines and would cater to the different storage requirements of the vaccine doses.
Dr. Nazla said that starting today, in the Greater Male' Area the covid vaccine would be administered to high-risk patients as well as those under quarantine or isolation in relation to positive cases.
She said that such individuals can got to the already established vaccination centers across the area.
Yesterday, Health Protection Agency HPA had said that a total of 206,114 people have now been given the first dose of the covishield vaccine in the Maldives since HPA kicked-off its nationwide inoculation drive last month.
This includes 116,636 from the Greater Male' Area and 89,478 in the Atolls.
