COVID-19: Maldives records 71 new cases, 19 recoveries

The Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Thursday, announced that 71 additional individuals tested positive for COVID-19 while 19 more have recovered.

According to the agency, the new cases consist of 15 locals and 56 foreigners.

HPA revealed that 60 of the new infections were reported in the Greater Male' Region while the remaining 11 cases were identified outside the capital area.

Speaking at the press conference held by the Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC), the centre's Spokesperson and HPA's Medical Officer Dr Nazla Rafeeq revealed that the number of cases spiked due to 45 employees of China Harbour Contracting Company testing positive for the virus.

Dr Nazla noted that the contact tracing process for the cluster is currently ongoing.

In addition to the Greater Male' Region, active virus cases are currently present in 13 inhabited islands as well as 30 resorts across the archipelago.

Maldives currently records a total of 11,893 virus cases of which 838 are active cases, in addition to 10,893 recoveries and 38 deaths.

During August, authorities tightened the safety measures implemented in the Greater Male' region, following an alarming upsurge of COVID-19 cases after the state initiated efforts to steer the country towards a 'new normal' with the phased easing of lockdown restrictions.

After a long period of recording over 100 daily cases, the numbers fell to two-digits during the most part of September. Throughout October the numbers had slipped further down below 50, with a few spikes on rare occasions.

Within this same period, the number of recoveries saw a significant increase, bringing the number of recovered cases to over 92 percent.

Despite the sustained decrease in virus cases, HPA has renewed calls for citizens to adhere to protective measures to contain the spread of the virus, cautioning against a public sentiment that the outbreak has been “controlled”.

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 48.6 million people and claimed over 1.2 million lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 34.8 million people have recovered.