The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Maldives topped total 900 on Tuesday.
Health Protection Agency (HPA) announced seven more cases on Tuesday, including two locals, three Bangladeshi and two Indian nationals.
✳️ COVID-19 Case Updates
— Health Protection Agency (@HPA_MV) May 12, 2020
As of 09:00am, confirmed an additional 07 cases of COVID-19 infection in Maldives.
Cases:
- 03 Bangladeshis
- 02 Maldivians
- 02 Indians
Total number of cases: 904
With this development, Maldives now records total 904 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 870 active cases, three fatalities and a total of 31 recoveries. Capital city Malé, one of the most densely populated places in the world, has recorded a significant increase in COVID-19 since it recorded its first local transmission of the virus on April 15.
The COVID-19 outbreak in the capital has disproportionately affected the expatriate population, the majority of whom are Bangladeshi nationals living in highly congested quarters where it is impossible to reduce contact or exercise social distancing. Their often small-spaced living conditions have been described by local and international civil society organizations as, "claustrophobic", "unsanitary" and "overcrowded".
Amid the pandemic, the government has mobilised efforts to transfer expatriate workers from cramped labour quarters to safer environments.
The country recorded its first COVID-19 related death, of an 83-year-old local female, on April 29. Since, two more individuals, a 33-year-old Bangladeshi man and a local 80-year-old man, have succumbed to COVID-19.
On March 12, 2020, the World Health Organization classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 4.29 million people and claimed over 289,000 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, 1.54 million people have recovered.
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