To create an even a safer scenario for the tourism industry, #Maldives has begun the COVID-19 vaccination for tourism sector employees today.
The immunization program against COVID-19 for tourism industry employees was initiated today at the Social Centre in Male’. Speaking at the event, Minister of Tourism, Dr. Abdulla Mausoom stated that vaccination arrangements will be made in resorts so that employees can get vaccinated with convenience. He added that the vaccination teams would travel to bigger resorts in order to vaccinate the resort workers in the future.
Under this vaccination drive, resort staff, safari and liveaboard workers, guesthouse staff, airport representatives and even the local artists will be inoculated. A circular issued by the Ministry has requested workers of the tourism industry to register for inoculations through the my.health portal.
For expatriate workers, the passport number of the employee is required. The deadline for registration is 9th February 2021. The Ministry added that 10,000 tourism industry workers will be inoculated with this program.
The “Covishield” brand vaccine administered, is developed by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and had the same formula as the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. On January 20, 2021, the Government of India donated a shipment of 100,000 doses of the vaccine to the Maldives.
Earlier last week, the Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA) approved the vaccine for emergency use in the Maldives, and the Government is currently equipped to inoculate 50,000 individuals. Work is ongoing to acquire more vaccines and to increase dosage capacity to cover the whole population. The vaccine rollout programme’s initial phase saw the drive kicked off in Malé, Addu and Kulhudhuffushi cities. It will target at-risk individuals over 50 years of age or have underlying medical issues; health and social workers; and essential frontline staff. Vaccines will not be administered to pregnant women or children under 16 at this time.
