The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that the Maldives has received the first 100,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine under an agreement to procure 200,000 doses signed between the island nation and the Serum Institute of India.

The Ministry of Health had signed an agreement with the Serum Institute of India to procure 200,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine on 23 March. While the first shipment of the vaccines arrived in the Maldives on Monday under this agreement, no date has been specified for when the remaining shipment of vaccines will arrive.

A nationwide Covid-19 vaccination programme was initiated in the Maldives on 1 February 2021, and since then, the Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) has issued emergency use approvals for the Covishield, Pfizer and Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines in the country.

Initially, 200,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine donated to Maldives from India had been used to vaccinate the nation's resident population. The second phase of vaccinations proceeding as of now will see residents administered the Sinopharm vaccine as procured from China. Those who received the Covishield vaccine as their first dose will be administered Covishield vaccines as their second doses, as two doses of the same vaccine type are required to build immunity against Covid-19.

The shipment of Covishield vaccines which arrived in the Maldives on Monday will thus be used to administer second doses of the vaccine to those who received the Covishield vaccine as their initial dose during the first phase of vaccinations conducted nationwide.

The government of Maldives has previously committed to providing free Covid-19 vaccines to all those living in the Maldives, and is working to secure enough doses of vaccines to achieving that goal. As such, the Ministry of Health has signed an as-yet undisclosed agreement with Singapore's AstraZeneca company to secure an additional 700,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines.