A dose of vaccine injected in Thimphu in Bhutan on March 27, 2021. – AFP
Bhutan said on Wednesday that it had managed in nine days to vaccinate against Covid-19 around 60% of its population. Officials from the small Himalayan kingdom wedged between India and China assured AFP that 470,000 people, out of a total population of 770,000, had received the first injection of the AstraZeneca vaccine offered by India.
Bhutan thus becomes the country which has succeeded the fastest in vaccinating such a proportion of its population, ahead of the Seychelles, Israel and the United Arab Emirates, according to an AFP analysis.
One death from Covid
When the campaign was launched on March 27, its goal was to vaccinate 533,000 adults (excluding pregnant women, recent mothers, people with health problems and the chronically ill) in just one week. This period was then extended.
A spokesperson for the health ministry told AFP that the campaign is now targeting people over 70 and the disabled. Bhutan has so far recorded only 896 infections and one death.