Its atolls with turquoise waters, its paradisiacal beaches, its sun… and now its vaccine!
The Maldives archipelago boasts a new asset to its foreign visitors: the first dose of anti-Covid immunization.
To bring back tourists who directly contribute to a third of the GDP of this jewel of the Indian Ocean, the Minister of Tourism, Abdulla Mausoom, announced on the American channel CNBC that the government would offer foreign visitors an injection of a vaccine against the coronavirus.
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For now, the priority is the protection of some 500,000 indigenous people.
About 90% of employees of the "
front line
" of the tourism sector have received their first dose, assures the minister.
The next phase is in a slogan: the
"3 V"
for
"travel, vaccine, vacation".
What serum will foreign guests receive in the archipelago, which last week deplored only 67 deaths attributed to the coronavirus? The minister mentions India, China and the Covax initiative of the World Health Organization (WHO) without being more specific on the suppliers. Currently, the archipelago welcomes travelers with a negative PCR test of less than three days as well as Americans who have received their two vaccine doses. The economic stake of the "VVV" operation is major. Almost 1.7 million tourists stayed in the Maldives in 2019. This number was divided by three last year with the pandemic. The 2021 goal is to reach 1.5 million visitors.
