Maldives Transport Authority (MTA) has announced unvaccinated individuals will be banned from using taxi services from September 1 onwards.
The announcement follows the new regulations regarding air and land travel published by the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation. The transport ministry has instructed all taxi services to check whether customers are unvaccinated despite being eligible for COVID-19 vaccination.
The transport ministry instructed air and land travel services as well as domestic air taxi services to adhere to the Health Protection Agency (HPA) guidelines when providing their services and to check the vaccination status of customers. The new regulations were implemented to encourage more citizens to get vaccinated, said the ministry.
The government earlier announced special measures will be put in place for unvaccinated individuals beginning on September 1. Furthermore, the government is continuing a programme to fully vaccinate 90% of the eligible population by the end of the month.
The education ministry and schools are also continuing the efforts to vaccinate students between the ages of 12 and 17. So far, around 382,000 individuals have received the first dose of vaccines and 301,000 individuals have received the second dose.