The small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has fully vaccinated against Covid-19 in 90% of adults who received a second dose of the vaccine within seven days, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
Bhutan, home to about 800,000 people, began releasing a second dose of the vaccine on July 20. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) described the measure as “the fastest vaccination campaign implemented during a pandemic”.
Bhutan entered the press columns in April when the government announced that in just under two weeks, about the same number of adults had received the first dose of Covid-19. This came after India donated 550,000 doses of AstraZeneca to Bhutan.
There was a shortage of vaccines in Bhutan in the following months as India suspended their exports to meet the rapidly growing demand on its territory.
Bhutan was able to resume vaccination last week when it received half a million doses of Moderna vaccine from the United States as a donation under the UN-backed COVAX program. Through this program, Bhutan also received approximately 5,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine.
In the last two weeks, Bhutan has also received more than 400,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from Denmark, Croatia and Bulgaria.
More than 3,000 health workers and 1,200 vaccination centers helped ensure that virtually every adult received the vaccine.
Vaccination was also helped by frequent government messages with direct answers to public questions about the new coronavirus and vaccination on the social network Facebook. The Prime Minister of Bhutan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Health are occupational physicians.
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