Health Protection Agency HPA has clarified that individuals who get the COVID-19 vaccine must receive the 1st and 2nd doses of the same vaccine.
HPA said in a tweet that the Agency had today begun administering the first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine donated by the Chinese government and that it is being given to those who had previously been unable to receive their first vaccine dose.
This had made several question whether they can get the covisheild vaccine as their first dose and the Sinopharm vaccine as their second dose of vaccine against COVID-19.
But HPA laid these questions to a rest by insisting that if an individual had received the Covishield vaccine as his/her first dose, he/she cannot get Sinopharm or any other type of vaccine as their second dose and vise visa.
Maldivian authorities have so far given emergency approval to three COVID-19 vaccines which include the Covishield vaccine, Sinopharm vaccine, and the Pfizer vaccine.
Meanwhile, HPA said on Monday that a total of 220, 768 people have now received the COVID-19 vaccine here in the Maldives.
HPA said that this includes 123, 227 in the Greater Male' area and 97,541 in the Atolls.
The Maldives began its mass immunization program on 1st February 2021 and the government plans to inoculate the whole population within three months.
