Covid-19: vaccination numbers low on Wednesday as well

Vaccination numbers, especially those receiving their second doses, have been low the past two days.

While over 7,000 second doses were administered this Sunday, these numbers have been averaging over 6,000 since the government resumed Covishield doses this month.

However, second dose numbers have been below 5,000 the past two days. While 4,471 people received their second doses on Tuesday, only 4,391 received their shots on Wednesday.

While health officials have not commented on this, a number of residents were eagerly awaiting their second vaccine dose by the time authorities resumed administering Covishield vaccine, with some even having gotten their first dose as early as February. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said that they are now giving out appointments to those who received their first Covishield dose in May.

The government launched its Covid-19 vaccination drive on February 1 this year, after receiving 100,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine from India. However, as the coronavirus situation in the neighboring nation worsened dramatically, it was later unable to provide a scheduled shipment.

Hence, while the demand was high at the start of the drive, there was a shortage by the time people required their second jabs.

With an additional 347 people having received their first Covid-19 vaccine on Wednesday, a total of 320,059 people have had a first shot while 251,232 have been fully vaccinated in the Maldives.

The Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC) on Tuesday revealed that 50 percent of the country's adult population is now fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

In addition to Covishield, Maldives is giving Sinopharm and Pfizer vaccine shots with the latter being administered under special circumstances.

Further, HEOC on Wednesday revealed that they will be halting the Covid-19 vaccination programme for the upcoming Eid-al-Adha holidays starting from July 17.