Maldives Looks Forward To Receive This Much Needed Gift Containing 100k Vaccine Doses From China

On Thursday, the Chinese Ambassador to Maldives, His Excellency Zhang Lizhong, met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Abdulla Shahid to inform the decision by the Government of China has to gift 100k doses of vaccines to the people of Maldives. This stands testament to their commitment in making vaccines a global public good. Accordingly, the arrangement is presently under discussion in order to ensure an early arrival.

However, it has not yet been confirmed which exact vaccine we would be receiving. COVID-19 vaccines from China include of CoronaVac, an inactivated vaccine that the Beijing-based biopharmaceutical company Sinovac is behind that works by using killed viral particles to expose the body's immune system to the virus without risking a serious disease response. On the other hand, Sinopharm, a Chinese state-owned company, is developing two Covid-19 vaccines, which, like Sinovac are also inactivated vaccines. According to Sinopharm, phase three trials of the vaccine showed that it was 79% effective whereas it has already been administered to nearly a million people in China under an emergency program. Furthermore, Sinopharm has been approved by United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt.

Maldives commenced its vaccination drive against COVID-19 on 1^st February 2021 following the generous donation of 100k doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca's COVISHIELD vaccine produced by Serum Institute of India by the Government of India. Presently, over 4000 people have been administered the first dose of the vaccine. 

(Photo: Foreign Minister's Twitter)