On Monday, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) carried out 6,259 vaccinations against the global Covid-19 pandemic, across the Maldives.

According to the latest Covid-19 vaccination updates publicized by the Health Protection Agency (HPA), 383 residents of the Greater Malé Region received their first vaccine doses from two mobile teams across nine vaccination centers in the capital, whereas 3,860 received their first shots across 237 vaccination centers in outlying atolls.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih launched the “Covid-19 Dhifaau” inoculation drive on February 1 with the Oxford AstraZeneca Covishield vaccinations produced by India’s Serum Institute. After temporarily discontinuing the first round of vaccinations on March 15, the public health authorities resumed administering the first doses of vaccination on March 22. HPA has since begun administering the second Covid-19 vaccination doses on April 3.

On Monday a total of 1,903 Malé residents received their second doses alongside 113 atoll residents.

This pushes the total number of residents in the capital region vaccinated so far to 138,247. The total number of vaccination doses administered under the government’s national Covid-19 inoculation drive across outlying atolls sits at 118,073. As such 251,139 individuals have received their first doses out of which 5,753 individuals have received their second doses.

The second shots for the Sinopharm vaccinations will be given after three to four weeks following the first dose. While two shots are required to effectively build immunity against the fatal infection, both shots must be of the same type.

The public health authority started the second round of vaccinations with the Sinopharm vaccine produced by Beijing Bio-Institute of Biological Products of China, for everyone above 18 years of age and below 60, who were unable to get their shots in the first round.

In addition, HPA has announced that those who are travelling abroad for medical and educational purposes may receive their second Covishield doses under specific conditions. As such, they may seek their second shots if they are unable to return to Maldives within 12 weeks of receiving the first shot and if four weeks have passed since first shots.

Earlier this year, neighboring India donated 200,000 Covishield doses to the Maldives after which Maldives signed an agreement to purchase 300,000 more Covishield doses from Serum Institute of India and the Serum Institute of Life Sciences, the first consignment of which arrived in late March.

During March, Maldives received a consignment of 200,000 Sinopharm doses donated by the government of China to amp up the country’s vaccination efforts.

The Health Emergency Operations Center (HEOC) earlier stressed the importance of vaccinating in order to build herd-immunity against Covid-19 within Maldivian communities.