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COVID-19: HPA confirms 137 new cases, 73 recoveries in Maldives

Fathmath Shaahunaz
02 September 2020, MVT 22:33
During the drill held to launch the national ambulance service in Maldives. PHOTO/MIHAARU
Fathmath Shaahunaz
02 September 2020, MVT 22:33

The Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Wednesday, announced that 137 more individuals tested positive for COVID-19 in Maldives, while 73 people recovered from the disease.

The new cases include 96 Maldivians and 41 expatriates. Unlike previous times, HPA did not reveal the nationalities of the foreign citizens that tested positive.

According to the agency, 129 of the newly positive cases were reported in the Greater Male' Region, while the remaining eight were detected from islands outside of the capital area.

With these developments, the island nation now records total 8,140 confirmed and 2,767 active COVID-19 cases, along with 5,338 recoveries and 29 deaths.

In addition to the Greater Male' region, active virus cases are present in 40 inhabited islands as well as 16 resorts across the archipelago.

After recording significantly low numbers in the months of May and June, the island nation recorded a significant rise in the number of COVID-19 cases per capita, indicating an alarming community spread in the country.

With the increasing number of infections, the number of recoveries has also risen in the past couple of weeks, after the recent spike reduced the total amount of recovered patients from the peak 86 to the lowest 53 percent. This value currently stands at 65.5 percent.

The number of COVID-19 cases skyrocketed after the state initiated efforts to steer the country towards a 'new normal' with the phased easing of lockdown restrictions across the Greater Male' Region.

As one of the most densely populated cities in the world, Maldives' capital Malé continues to record a significant number of COVID-19 cases, similar to the first weeks following the first confirmed local transmission on April 15.

On March 12, WHO classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. To date, the new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 26 million people and claimed over 863,500 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 18.2 million people have recovered.

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