Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed claimed on Tuesday that the Health Protection Agency (HPA)'s surveys project 8,000 cases of COVID-19 in Maldives.
During a meeting with the parliamentary group leaders, the former president stated that he sought the information in HPA's latest epidemiological survey to determine precautionary measures that must be implemented in order to resume parliament sittings in the chamber.
According to Nasheed, the survey detailed two methods of controlling the coronavirus pandemic in Maldives, and their respective results:
1. Should the measures currently in place in Maldives be lifted, 8,000 people would contract COVID-19 within 80 days.
2. Should the measures be left as are, 8,000 people would still contract the virus but across a period of 210 days.
Noting that the same amount of infections are projected for both scenarios, Nasheed stressed that Maldives must aim for the second in order to minimise the number of people that would otherwise be hospitalised daily, thereby leading to insufficient medical care and possible fatalities.
"We need to find time in order to strengthen the quality of hospitals and healthcare services", he said, further noting the need to enhance intensive care.
Touching upon the government's measures to prepare for possible community spread of COVID-19 in the country, Nasheed added that the state required an additional 247 beds and total 700 hospital beds to be fully prepared for such a scenario.
HPA had earlier announced an ongoing survey to look for possible COVID-19 community spread in Maldives. The agency is yet to officially announce the results of its epidemiological survey.
Maldives now has 20 confirmed and six active cases of COVID-19, with a total of 14 recoveries.
The World Health Organization has classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The novel coronavirus has infected over 1.93 million people and claimed over 120,400 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 456,700 people have recovered.
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