Maldives to offer vaccine to tourists, says government minister

The Maldives plans to offer tourists the opportunity to get vaccinated when you arrive for a holiday in the country to try and get the tourism industry going again.

Maldivian Tourism Minister, Abdulla Mausoom, said in an interview with CNBC:

"The main idea of tourism being open is to provide a reasonably safe tourism with minimum inconvenience," he said. "So once the country gets vaccinated, then we will move on to '3V' tourism."

'3V' is the Maldives' new scheme - "Visit, Vaccinate, Vacation".

The minister could not give a timeline for the new vaccination-on-arrival programme, stating that the country’s first priority was to make sure its own population had been fully vaccinated.

In other news, Mr Mausoom also said that the country would “very soon” be announcing restriction-free travel for visitors who’ve already been fully vaccinated.