Bhutan administered the first shot of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine to 93% of its adult population within two weeks. Only Israel (95.1%) and Seychelles (94.1%) have vaccinated a higher percentage of adults.
Overall, the country has vaccinated 62% of its 800,000 people, The Hindu reported citing AP.
The massive vaccination campaign puts the tiny nation just behind Seychelles, which has given jabs to 66% of its population of nearly 100,000 people.
While most countries, even the ones that have performed well, took months to scale up inoculations against coronavirus, the tiny nation of nearly 800,000 citizens did it in a matter of days, Hindustan Times reported.
Earlier on Wednesday, government officials told AFP that 470,000 people out of 770,000 in total had been administered the first shot of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine donated by India.
Bhutan launched its vaccination campaign launched on March 27. It set the speedy target of vaccinating 533,000 adults -- having excluded pregnant women, new mothers, people with certain health conditions, and seriously ill patients -- in just one week.
However, the nation, famous for measuring gross national happiness, extended its deadline by several weeks.
The country received its first 150,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India in January. However, the vaccination program launched in late March to coincide with auspicious dates in Buddhist astrology, reports The Hindu.
According to data from John Hopkins University, Bhutan has recorded 918 Covid-19 infections and one death so far.
