Tourism Minister: 99 percent of tourism workers received first dose of COVID-19 vaccine

Around 99 percent of all tourism industry workers have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Tourism Minister Dr. Abdulla Mausoom has announced. 

The Minister in a ceremony held to commemorate the start of a vaccine campaign to inoculate the entire tourism workers sector said that feats such as inoculating 99 percent of workers against the virus meant that the faith in Maldivian tourism industry was on the rise. 

Minister Mausoom also said that 8,000 tourism workers have received both doses of the vaccine. 

He noted the plight of tourism industry workers who had to work tirelessly without a vaccine in 2020, away from their families and barred from traveling to their homelands, before noting that now, arrangements have been made so that workers can now visit their families and travel. 

The Minister said that the protocols set in place by the Maldives was accepted by the entire world and that the Maldives was now seen as a safe location for tourism globally. 

"The protocol has the full faith of tourists, other nations and governments as well as everyone in the tourism industry. We have seen that. The Maldives won one of the most prestigious awards in the world in 2020, the World's Leading Destination Award. Alongside that, CNN has labeled the Maldives as the international success story in tourism in 2020. We managed to achieve all of this with the full cooperation of the tourism industry, government, and the health sector in implementing the planings to carry on with Maldivian tourism during the pandemic," said Minister Mausoom. 

The Maldives received 555,494 tourists in 2020, and so far in 2021, the nation had received 381,419 tourists.

The Minister also hailed the vaccine campaign commenced for tourism workers today under the banner "I am vaccinated" would increase the faith in the industry by tourists and that the success of the Maldives was dependant on the efforts of the entire nation. 

The aim of the vaccine campaign, according to the Minister was to become the first nation to go for a vaccinated tourism. Under the program, all workers who complete both doses of the vaccine will receive a specially designated badge.