Less than 2,000 people were inoculated against Covid-19 on Friday, which is less than half the amount recorded the previous day.

While 5,166 people were vaccinated on Thursday, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said that 1,902 were inoculated against the virus across the country on Friday.

According to the most recent HPA statistics, a total of 1,496 persons were administered Covid-129 vaccines in the Male' area on Friday, and an additional 406 persons received vaccine doses in vaccination centers established in atolls.

This pushes the total vaccinated in the country since the nationwide vaccination campaign was launched on the 1st of February, to 27,367.

Health authorities began vaccination efforts for high-risk groups between 18 and 55 on Saturday in the Male' area on Saturday.

On Friday, Pediatrician Dr. Ahmed Faisal, Chair of the Maldives Technical Advisory Group on Immunization, warned that the Maldives' Covid-19 outlook was critical due to the new variant of Covid-19 being in active transmission in the Maldives.

Dr. Faisal further added that transmissions were more likely to occur quickly in small, congested spaces where people gathered, and noted that those who had received their first dose of the vaccine could also become infected with the virus.

In a tweet posted on Friday, Dr. Faisal shared a World Health Organization (WHO) briefing which stated that current data supports those who had been administered full doses of Covid-19 vaccines had not developed severe infections that required in-hospital care or led to fatalities. He added that this held true in countries where the new variant was in active transmission as well.