As part of the United States’ global efforts to save lives and end the Covid-19 pandemic, the American government has donated more doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to the Maldivian government.
According to a press release by the U.S. Mission to Maldives, the government of America donated 210,600 additional doses of the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in partnership with the COVAX Facility, UNICEF and the government of Maldives.
The publication goes on to read that the U.S. remains committed to deliver life-saving vaccines and mitigating the impacts of the pandemic, especially as the Omicron variant continues to sweep across Asia.
U.S. Chargé d'Affaires to Sri Lanka and Maldives, Martin Kelly commented that global efforts must continue in order to fight the virus, as the pandemic enters its third year. He added that the U.S. is partnering with more than 120 countries including Maldives, to deliver vaccines and reduce the social and economic consequences of the global pandemic.
Since the earliest days of the pandemic, the government of U.S. has been working hand-in-hand with the government of Maldives in efforts to combat the pandemic and to date, the American government has delivered almost 440,000 Pfizer vaccine doses to the archipelago nation.
Further, more than USD seven million has also been donated in emergency supplies, training and other critical services.
Alongside 100,000 Rapid Diagnostic Tests, the U.S. government has provided an in-kind donation of 60 ventilators to the Ministry of Health, to date.
In partnership with local organizations, the U.S. government has assisted in expanding social protection services linked to Covid-19 as well as implemented a safety awareness campaign against Covid-19.
The statement goes on to read that the U.S. government is currently supporting the efforts by the Maldivian government to develop effective economic, fiscal and monetary measures to ensure the long-term recovery of the island nation’s economy.
More than 386 million life-saving vaccine doses have been delivered to date, as part of the U.S. government’s commitment to donate 1.2 billion vaccines to partner countries globally.
U.S. has committed more than USD 1.6 billion to help deliver doses throughout the globe, with the recent announcement of its Initiative for Global Vaccine Access (Global VAX) as well.
At a time Covid-19 has shed the spotlight on the vast and overlapping health, humanitarian and economic crises, the U.S. Mission to Maldives has urged for effective global collaboration, deemed critical to assist in eradicating the virus and mitigating its impacts.
The publication reads that global collaboration is “more important than ever”, with the surfacing of the new and more transmissible Covid-19 variant, ‘Omicron’.
U.S. has been one of the most generous contributors to the Maldives Covid-19 response efforts, so far having donated 439,920 vaccine doses to the Maldives throughout the course of the past year. The donation was provided entirely free of charge.
In addition to this, America has also provided urgent medical supplies including Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) including 32,000 KN95 masks, 4,000 protective goggles, 316,000 pairs of examination gloves, diagnostic tools including 100,000 Rapid Diagnostic Tests and 600 fingertip pulse oximeters.
Other forms of assistance provided by the U.S. government including the provision of clinical training to 796 doctors and nurses from 60 facilities specializing in Covid-19 case management, training 191 staff from 19 health facilities on ventilator use to expand the pool of healthcare professionals qualified to use the model, donating critical hygiene supplies that has reached more than 76,000 students and 9,000 teachers across government schools and special needs care facilities as well.
Maldives was included among the first countries to receive vaccines under the U.S. Global Covid Vaccine Sharing strategy.
