The Edition
facebook icon twitter icon instagram icon linkedin icon

Latest

COVID-19: Daily cases spike over 100, 3 days in a row

Shahudha Mohamed
27 January 2021, MVT 00:06
A student sanitising their hands and getting their temperature checked at the school gate. PHOTO: MIHAARU
Shahudha Mohamed
27 January 2021, MVT 00:06

The Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Sunday, announced that 145 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Maldives, while 32 recovered from the disease.

According to the agency, 93 of the new cases were detected from the Greater Male' Region. 14 cases were identified in inhabited islands, 36 cases were from operational resorts and the remaining two cases were found on liveaboards.

Last 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 2020.

Throughout the rest of last year, numbers slipped further down below 50, with a few spikes on rare occasions.

However, cases have been on the rise throughout January 2021, with active cases surpassing the 1,000-mark after months of recording three-digit numbers. New clusters were identified on operational resorts as well as several islands in the south.

HPA recently eased several safety measures imposed to control the spread of COVID-19. These leniencies include the cancellation of the city-wide curfew over the greater Male’ region, the reduction of quarantine periods to 10 days as well as cancelling mandatory quarantine for locals returning to Maldives and for locals travelling to resorts.

But the agency 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, 2020, WHO classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. To date, the new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 1 billion people and claimed over 2.1 million lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 72.5 million people have recovered.

Share this story

Topics

Discuss

MORE ON NEWS