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Maldives to start wide range booster campaign in January

Lamya Abdulla
12 January 2022, MVT 14:35
People queuing to get the take Covid tests outside Social Center on January 10, 2022 -- Photo: Fayaz Moosa / Mihaaru
Lamya Abdulla
12 January 2022, MVT 14:35

Minister of State for Health Dr. Shah Mahir said on Tuesday that a large scale booster program will be initiated later this month.

The delay in starting the booster program was unavailability of syringes due to a worldwide shortage. Shah had said the required medical equipment was expected to arrive within the next week.

Maldives received 100,620 doses of Pfizer vaccine from USA, via COVAX facility in December 2021.

Health Protection Agency (HPA) had previously planned to start administering the booster shots in December itself. The campaign kept getting delayed due to the current global shortage in syringes.

Even though booster doses have not been opened for the public, HPA has been administering booster shots for health workers and front line workers at the airport, in addition to people with long term health problems.

Shah said that they currently had enough vaccines to booster the current eligible population of Maldives.

After several months of low Covid-19 cases, Maldives is seeing a surge in Covid cases as the highly contagious Omicron gains a foothold in the nation as well. HPA has started to strengthen the precautionary measures in place to stop the spread.

As a high percentage of Maldives have been received at least two doses of the vaccines against Covid-19, HPA presumes people that contract the Omicron variant may experience mild symptoms.

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