It is a race against time for the Health Ministry as it tries to administer all available COVID-19 vaccines in Fiji before its expiry date.

With Fiji amongst a handful of small nations using the vaccine, Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete says his Ministry is accelerating the vaccination program this week so there is no room for wastage.

Dr Waqainabete says they are working as fast as they can to complete the first batch of vaccine over the next two weeks.

“We want to be able to continue to accelerate vaccination over the next week to two weeks because we need to be able to finish the vaccines of this first initial dose and ensure that the expiry date is actually before the 12th week.”

Dr Waqainabete says more than 50,000 Fijians have registered online so far with 10,000 already vaccinated as of last week.

The Ministry aims to vaccinate over 650,000 Fijians to help us get back on track.