State Minister at the Health Ministry, Dr. Shah Maahir has said that there are 20,000 people who are eligible for the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine that has not received the dose.

Speaking at the Health Emergency Operations Center (HEOC) press conference today, Dr. Shah said that despite the rise in COVID-19 cases in the country, the vaccination program is moving forward rapidly. And so, 67 percent of the eligible population has received the first dose of the vaccine which amounts to 52 percent of the population.

He said that 30 percent of those people have received the second dose as well.

Highlighting that the Maldives is quite high on the list of countries leading vaccinations, Dr. Shah said that 60 or 70 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity and that target can be reached in the near future. However, there are many people who had received the first dose but have not received the second dose of the vaccine.

Dr. Shah said that when he last checked the data today, there are about 20,000 people who has not gotten the second dose.

There are three different COVID-19 vaccines being used in the program in Maldives; Covishield, Sinopharm and the Pfizer vaccine.