The government is preparing to introduce Emergency Medical Service (EMS) and the Maldives Health Service (MHS) during July.
This was revealed by President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih during a press briefing hosted on Tuesday evening, to update the public regarding eases to Covid-19 restrictions in place to control the fourth wave of Covid-19 confirmed in early May.
President Solih revealed that the Ministry of Health is working to establish MHS with an aim to boost primary healthcare services provided by the authority and to expand primary healthcare opportunities nationwide.
Highlighting that work is currently underway to establish more facilities, President Solih noted that the institute will be inaugurated within July.
Further speaking on the matter Minister of Health Ahmed Naseem detailed that the institute will prove to be efficient in acknowledging the difficulties the ministry faces in monitoring healthcare service providers at the same time as providing primary healthcare nationwide.
108 healthcare workers under the ministry will be transferred to the facility once established.
In addition, the Emergency Medical Service or EMS will focus on enhancing ambulance services, at a time authorities recently came under fire for a delay in providing service to a 10-year-old girl who died in mid-June.
The health minister went onto reveal that authorities will authorize domestic travel for those who have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus, only when the fully vaccinated percentage reaches 75. As such he noted that although the government wishes to establish a policy to allow travel for fully-vaccinated individuals, only 38 percent of persons have been fully vaccinated nationwide thus far.
Maldives earlier approved domestic travel for fully vaccinated individuals to islands where 60 percent of the community is vaccinated, however this was renounced after the Covid-19 caseload began increasing out of hand.
The incumbent administration of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih launched the “Covid-19 Dhifaau” inoculation drive on February 1.
A total of seven vaccinations are currently approved for emergency use in the Maldives. The most recent vaccine approved for emergency use in the Maldives is AstraZeneca, the seventh vaccine approved by the Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) on June 20. On June 6 Maldives approved Spain’s Moderna vaccine as well as the Janssen vaccine manufactured by Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson and Johnson. Earlier in May Maldives authorized Russia’s Sputnik V Vaccine in its battle against Covid-19 as the fourth vaccine approved for emergency use. Maldives is also using the Oxford AstraZeneca Covishield vaccination, Sinopharm as well as Pfizer vaccines in its inoculation programme.
It has been over a month since healthcare authorities halted administering the India-sourced Covishield vaccinations. The government has since revealed that they expect to receive a shipment of the Covishield vaccination soon, and that efforts are currently underway to procure supplies. Earlier, Minister Naseem revealed that the first shipment of AstraZeneca vaccine doses procured through an agreement earlier, was to arrive this concluding month. As such he had revealed that shipments of the 700,000 AstraZeneca doses are expected to arrive within three months, with the first batch of 200,000 doses set to arrive in late June.
