Former president Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik has revealed that both he and wife Ilham Hassan have received the first dose of the Covishield vaccine, taking to social media to share the news and encouraging others to do the same.

In a tweet he posted on Sunday evening, Dr. Mohamed Waheed Hassan Manik revealed that both he and Ilham Hussain had received their first doses of the Covishield vaccine. Dr. Waheed described the global pandemic as a fatal one that had impacted all aspects of life, and encouraged everyone to get vaccinated in order to prevent further loss of life.

While Dr. Waheed, the opposition coalition's special advisor, has received the Covishield vaccine and used his platform to help communicate vaccine confidence to the general public on Sunday despite his father having passed the very same morning, a number of leaders from the opposition coalition continue to propagate doubts and false information about the vaccine. In addition to objecting to being administered the doses, the opposition claims that the vaccines that have been brought to the Maldives are somehow illegitimate despite being unable to corroborate said claims.

The Covishield vaccine manufactured by India's Serum Institute is based on the Covid-19 vaccine formula as developed by AstraZeneca Plc in association with the University of Oxford. Leaders of all three branches of government in the Maldives received the Covishield vaccine on 1 February as a nationwide campaign was launched to vaccinate all those living in the Maldives against Covid-19.