Maldives' foreign minister receives Covishield's jab, shares video

Abdulla Shahid, the Maldivian Foreign Minister, on Monday received the Indian-made COVID-19 vaccine shot.

Abdulla Shahid, the Maldivian Foreign Minister, on Monday received the Indian-made COVID-19 vaccine shot. Shahid tweeted a video in which he is being administered with the first of the two vaccine shots.

"Today I received the #COVID19 vaccine. Govt of Maldives begins #COVID19 vaccination for all in #Maldives with no discrimination based on nationality. To the Gov't & people of #India who so generously provided the vaccine to #Maldives, a big thank you. May Allah bless us all!" tweeted Abdulla Shahid. India has supplied to the Maldives 100,000 doses of CoviShield (Oxford-Astra Zeneca vaccine) manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute of India.

The archipelago was among the first countries, along with Bhutan, to receive COVID-19 vaccines from India. India launched the Vaccine Maitri initiative on January 20 to gift COVID-19 vaccines to other countries.

Earlier, the country supplied COVID-19 vaccines to neighbouring countries Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh under the Neighbourhood First policy. (ANI)