A small Asian country wedged in the Himalayan mountains between India and China is right up there among the top nations to have vaccinated the majority of its population.
The Kingdom of Bhutan's Health Ministry said on 8 April that 93 percent of all adults aged 18 to 104 in the country had received their first dose of the vaccine. All in all, that makes 472,139 of its eligible citizens vaccinated, which is roughly 62 percent of its overall population, says Our World in Data.
Indeed, the chart below shows the country's meteoric rise to the top. What's incredible about these numbers is that Bhutan managed to roll out its vaccination drive in just two weeks, starting its first jabs on 27 March.
The local newspaper, Daily Bhutan, said the country received a total of 550,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses, which it calls Covishield, from India. Over 1,000 inoculation sites were established across the kingdom and 41 doctors were placed on duty to oversee correct vaccine protocol and help if any adverse side effects occurred.
Aside from being well organized, another factor played a major role in the vaccine's successful rollout: the country's size. Bhutan is small - about 6 times smaller than the UK - with a population under 800,000 people. "It is our smallness that has led to this feat," the newspaper stated.
However, the state-run newspaper Kuensel also explains that the country's exemplary system helped maintain Covid-19 numbers low from the start by containing local outbreaks quickly and efficiently. Throughout the pandemic, Bhutan has recorded 910 coronavirus infections and only one death.