Nearly 13,000 people have been immunized against Covid-19 in the Maldives, by sundown on Monday.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) said that 3,190 individuals were administered Covid-19 vaccine on Monday, including 2,663 in capital Male’ City and 527 in vaccination centers across different atolls.

With this, a total of 12,934 individuals have been inoculated by Monday evening; 10,626 in Male’ and 2,038 in atolls.

HPA on Tuesday started vaccination for high-risk individuals between 50 and 55 years of age, living in greater Male’ area.

The government launched the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive last Monday, with President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and other senior government officials receiving their initial dose of the two-dose vaccine on live TV in order to show confidence in the Covishield vaccine provided by India as grant assistance.

The president has on multiple occasions stressed the government’s efforts to vaccinate all those living in the Maldives free of cost, within six months. Most recently, during his third presidential address on Thursday, President Solih revealed that the government has guaranteed contracts for the procurement of sufficient supplies of vaccines "to all Maldivians and residents", and called upon the public to continue to provide their full support to in the government’s Covid-19 recovery efforts.