Maldives to introduce a vaccine passport

Health Minister Ahmed Naseem has announced the decision to introduce a vaccine passport in Maldives to facilitate more convenient travel amid the pandemic.

In an interview to national radio channel Dhivehi Raajjeyge Adu on Saturday night, Naseem appealed for all Maldivian people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

“Once we get vaccinated, we can travel anywhere with the vaccine passport,” he said.

Naseem said getting vaccinated will make both domestic and international travel easier.

“We will, In Sha Allah, get this done within the coming three to four months. I ask that everyone get vaccinated. Failure to get vaccinated will create inconveniences. It will be harder to travel without getting vaccinated,” said Naseem, stating that the government made the decision to introduce a vaccine passport after making thorough considerations.

“We are currently looking into creating a vaccine passport. If there’s a vaccine passport, there will be no difficulty in travelling overseas, or within Maldives,” he said.

Maldives began mass vaccination against COVID-19 on February 1. 145,768 people were administered the first dose of Covishield by the end of last Saturday. The second dose will be administered after eight weeks.

Maldives is currently administering a donation of 200,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine developed by Oxford and AstraZeneca and produced by the Serum Institute of India and have ordered 700,000 more doses.