Maldives receives 100,620 more Covid-19 vaccine doses from U.S. gov't

Maldives received another donation of Covid-19 vaccine doses from the United States on Saturday.

According to a press release by the U.S. Mission to Maldives, the government of America donated 100,620 Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine doses to Maldives, which is an addition to the nearly 120,000 doses previously donated.

With this, over 229,000 doses have been donated by the U.S. to Maldives, to support the island nation’s vaccination drive.

In partnership with the Maldivian government, the additional consignment was delivered in coordination with the COVAX facility, to “build back a better world”.

The U.S. Mission to Maldives revealed that the consignment builds on the American government’s ongoing leadership on global vaccination efforts as the world’s largest donor to COVAX, the global vaccine access initiative.

U.S. Chargé d'Affaires to Sri Lanka and Maldives, Martin Kelly commented that the government of U.S applauds the Maldivian government’s efforts to vaccinate every person on every island to safeguard its population and that joint efforts to protect close ones from the pandemic are crucial to end the pandemic and promote economic recovery across Maldives “and beyond”.

This mirrors the administration of Joe Biden’s commitment to end the pandemic, mitigate its devastating social and economic impacts, and ensuring the world is better prepared for future outbreaks, reads the statement, which goes on to highlight that U.S. has donated and delivered more than 300 million safe and effective vaccines to more than 100 countries around the world, saving lives and protecting communities, despite the unprecedented scale, speed and complexity of this global vaccination effort.

U.S. officials have worked in close cooperation with the Maldivian government to respond to the pandemic, having provided over USD seven million in emergency supplies, training, and critical services, plus an in-kind donation of 60 ventilators.

Further, the American government has worked with local organizations to expand Covid-19 related social protection services and implement a Covid-19 safety awareness campaign.

With an aim to foster the long-term economic recovery of Maldives, U.S. is also supporting the Maldivian government to develop effective economic, fiscal and monetary measures to respond to the pandemic.

Maldives was included among the first countries to receive vaccines under the U.S. Global Covid Vaccine Sharing strategy.