Registration to receive Covid-19 vaccines begins
Vaccines are to be distributed based on a priority lists publicized by the government
Spokesperson for the Health Emergency Operations Center (HEOC), Dr. Nazla Rafeeq
The opportunity to register for Covid-19 vaccinations has opened, on Monday.
Spokesperson for the Health Emergency Operations Center (HEOC), Dr. Nazla Rafeeq announced this during Sunday night's Covid-19 press briefing, stressing that as in other countries of the world, Maldivian authorities were now preparing to procure and administer Covid-19 vaccines to citizens.
The doctor said that work was now underway to collect information on those they deemed high priority for the vaccines, and that a portal was now online for citizens to submit their information and register to receive the vaccine. She added that first priority would be given to healthcare workers when distributing the vaccine.
Dr. Nazla further requested that all those that fall under categories at the top of priority lists publicized by the government for Covid-19 vaccination register to receive doses through the my.health.mv portal, which opened on Monday. The portal details that vaccination will take place in phases based on availability, with priority given to those who are most vulnerable to the effects of the disease, those working on the frontline and later to the general population.
In order to register through this website, users are required to enter their information to the portal and confirm submissions via an OTP sent to their devices, at which point HPA will proceed with finalizing and authenticating their registration.
Minister of Health Ahmed Naseem met with the Director General and Regional Director for South East Asia from the World Health Organization (WHO) last month, in order to discuss procuring vaccines for the Maldives.
WHO has recognized the COVAX facility's pledge to provide free vaccines to the Maldives. The first batch of vaccines from COVAX will be enough to vaccinate 20 percent of the Maldivian population. A total of 400,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been pledged to the Maldives by COVAX, which will be transported in stages due to lack of storage facilities.
Maldives is set to receive the country's first Covid-19 vaccines before the end of January.
While the government has also decided to sign an agreement with AstraZeneca Singapore Pvt. Ltd. for securing more vaccines, with the Public Finance Act to be amended in order to further ease vaccine procurement efforts, it is unclear on the type of vaccine being procured.
Further, Indian High Commissioner Sunjay Sudhir this past weekend said that Maldives will be receiving vaccines from India "very soon".
