Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has expressed gratitude to the Maldives Minister of Health Ahmed Naseem for the call regarding the country’s access to Covid-19 vaccination.

The WHO Director-General thanked the Maldives minister for his cooperation, commitment and support to the organization in curbing the spread of Covid-19 as well as highlighting the importance of allocating vaccination “equitably” to curb the spread of the virus.

Earlier in December, the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) accepted the Maldives’ proposal for free vaccination to be distributed to each nation, and the island nation was included among the 92 low-and middle-income countries eligible to access Covid-19 vaccines through COVAX back in September, and it was confirmed that each country would receive enough to vaccinate 20 percent of the population.

A credit source earlier told RaajjeMV that the first batch of Covid-19 vaccine doses would cover 200,000 people. Maldives will be receiving a total of 400,000 doses, however, a delay in bringing the dosages is expected due to lack of storage facilities.

Maldives will receive the vaccine dosages within the first quarter of 2021, according to the Chairperson of Steering Committee for Covid-19 Vaccine at the Health Ministry, Dr. Shah Abdulla Mahir.