Bhutan has started the second phase of the national immunization drive on Tuesday and planned to administer the second dose of vaccines to over 500,000 people. Over 97 percent of the eligible population has already received their first dose in the country. 

The government has decided to use the mix and match vaccine method where it is administering Moderna vaccine as the second dose to people who had earlier received Astra-Zeneca as their first dose. 

To assure the public of the safety of the mixing matching method, Bhutanese Prime Minister Lotey Tshering along with other influential people first volunteered to take the Moderna vaccine just two days before the official beginning of the vaccination drive. 

Bhutan, with a population of over 760,000 people, is one of the countries which reported the least vaccine hesitancy.

On Tuesday, the first day of the drive, hundreds of people lined up to receive their vaccines, and many centers had reportedly run out of vaccines. Thousands of people from distant remote villages too walked for miles to reach vaccination centers. 

The government has set an ambitious target to administer a second dose to all eligible populations in just ten days. Earlier, it administered the first dose to all eligible people in a record nine days. 

(SAM)