Covid-19 vaccine doses were administered to 1,783 persons on Saturday.

Under the government’s “Covid-19 Dhifaau” inoculation drive, 784 Greater Malé residents and 999 atoll residents received doses on Saturday.

These included 1,108 first doses administered to 377 Greater Malé residents and 731 atoll residents, as well as 675 second doses administered to 407 Greater Malé residents and 268 atoll residents.

According to the latest vaccination update publicized by the Health Protection Agency (HPA), the total number of persons who completed both vaccine doses has risen to 295,039 whereas the number of persons who have received a first dose sits at 343,901.

The number of persons awaiting second doses currently sits at 48,862.

The incumbent administration of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih launched the “Covid-19 Dhifaau” inoculation drive on February 1 and recently the Health Emergency Operations Center (HEOC) revealed that they are now in the final stages of the campaign and the aim is to vaccinate 90 percent of the eligible population by the end of August.

HEOC Spokesperson Dr. Nazla Rafeeq has revealed that the doses of AstraZeneca vaccine Maldives has received and is currently administering, will expire in November. With this being said and as vaccination has limited shelf life of just six months since manufactured date, authorities will conclude administering first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine by September 1. The government currently has the capacity to conclude first doses to the eligible population by the beginning of September.

The government aims to vaccinate 95 percent of those above 18 years of age as well as school employees through the vaccination coverage, by the beginning of September under the Education Ministry’s campaign to vaccinate the education sector employees and students.

While authorities approved Pfizer vaccine for children between the ages of 12 to 17 earlier, President Solih has since revealed efforts to complete the first dose for all eligible children by the end of August. The vaccination campaign began on Sunday.

HPA has also publicized a list of restrictions that unvaccinated persons will be facing, including a ban on domestic travel and disallowing tourists to check in to guesthouses if they are unvaccinated. Further, civil servants who have not been vaccinated yet will also be required to present negative PCR test results every 14 days from September 1.