President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Saturday deliberated on the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic with Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa, via a telephone call.
During the call, both state leaders assessed the impact that the virus had caused in their respective countries, further discussing the countermeasures already implemented by both to curb the spread of COVID-19.
In addition, President Solih and Prime Minister Rajapaksa outlined the initiatives to ensure that the epidemic curve is flattened and that healthcare facilities and professionals are not overburdened.
According to the circular released by the President's Office, the two leaders further shed light on the importance of maintaining strong bilateral relations and regional cooperation to "meet the challenges of international travel restrictions and necessary physical distancing measures on businesses and economies", specially when tourism is a major contributor to the economy in both countries.
Previously, Maldives made arrangements for families to send care packages to their loved ones under lockdown in Sri Lanka.
National airline Maldivian confirmed on Saturday that the airline will operate flights to Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Cochin, India, to bring back the locals stuck in these states due to nationwide lock-downs implemented by the neighbouring countries.
Presently, Maldives records 19 confirmed and six active cases of COVID-19, with a total of 13 recoveries. While there are two confirmed cases of Maldivians, no local to local transmissions have been recorded.
The World Health Organization has classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The novel coronavirus has infected over 1,202,400 people and claimed over 64,700 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 246,600 people have recovered.
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