Vaccine centers in Male' City to be closed tomorrow

Vaccine centers in the capital Male' City will be closed for tomorrow, Health Protection Agency (HPA) has announced. 

HPA tweeted today that the vaccine centers in the Greater Male' Area will be closed tomorrow, but did not reveal any reason as to why. 

Before the month of Ramadan, vaccinations had been ongoing in multiple centers day and night. The timings were changed for the month of Ramadan to only night time between 21:00 and 23:45. 

Sun has recently learned that the Maldives does not have an adequate supply of the Covishield vaccine (Astrazeneca and Oxford University vaccine) to complete the second dose for the people who had received the first dose of the vaccine. HPA had repeatedly refused to respond to questions by Sun regarding the vaccine stock in the Maldives but stated that the Maldives would not run out of vaccines. 

As fears of vaccine shortages rose, HPA had reduced the number of vaccine centers operating and even stopped offering tokens for vaccinations online. 

Health Ministry State Minister Dr. Shah Mahir, in a press conference held yesterday, had stated that the program would not come to halt due to a shortage of supply. 

Sources have confirmed that the vaccine supply shortages was a result of the devastating COVID-19 situation currently in India, which is the major manufacturer and supplier of the Covishield vaccine to the Maldives. 

Statistics updated by the HPA show that there are around 295,000 people who had received the first dose of the vaccine as well as 97,000 people who had received both doses of the vaccine.