COVID-19: Maldives confirms 14 new cases, 10 recoveries

As of 1800hrs on Monday, authorities confirmed that an additional 14 individuals tested positive for COVID-19 in Maldives, while 10 patients made full recoveries.

According to Health Protection Agency (HPA), the new cases include eight locals, three Bangladesh nationals, two Indians and one Sri Lankan citizen.

Speaking at the daily press briefing held by the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC), President's Office's Communications Undersecretary Mabrouq Abdul Azeez noted that two of the six expatriates found positive for the virus were connected to clusters, while four are independent cases.

Mabrouq also confirmed that seven of the eight locals who tested positive are linked to pre-existing clusters while the remaining individual is an independent case.

NEOC revealed that the 14 aforementioned individuals tested positive out of 816 sample results.

"So far, we have tested a total of 42,830 samples", Mabrouq said.

He also revealed that eight patients are hospitalised at Hulhumale' Medical Facility, while three are receiving treatment at Treetop Hospital, of which two patients are on ventilators.

Moreover, Mabrouq noted that the bed capacity of quarantine facilities has now reduced to 1420, as many of the resorts formerly used for facilities are now preparing to reopen for tourism in July.

With these developments, Maldives presently records a total of 2,217 confirmed cases, out of which 391 are active cases of COVID-19. The country records 1,816 recoveries and eight fatalities so far.

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

However, the number of recoveries have continued to rise, with almost 82 percent of patients now recovered.

WHO has classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 9.1 million people and claimed over 471,000 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, 4.8 million people have recovered.