National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) on Saturday revealed that the survey currently ongoing to look for possible COVID-19 community spread will be completed within two weeks.
Speaking at the press conference held by NEOC, Health Protection Agency (HPA)'s medical official Dr Nazlaa Rafeeq said, "The samples are being taken within the capital area and across Maldives. We are estimating that, God willing, we will be able to complete taking all the samples, test them and obtain results within two weeks or sooner".
In response to a question from a reporter, Dr Nazlaa stated that various precautionary measures are being set in place, and the decision to lift or lighten these would be made based on the results of the survey.
HPA announced the survey on April 6. At that time Dr Nazla stated that they would take samples from those admitted with respiratory infections, as well as look into the number of respiratory disease-related reports received from Maldives.
Additionally, she revealed that samples were obtained from those who visited the flu clinics to check whether COVID-19 was present undetected within the community.
Maldives declared its first ever State of Public Health Emergency on March 12 for a period of 30 days, due to concerns over the global pandemic. Minister of Health Abdulla Ameen on March 10 made the decision to extend the emergency until April 30.
Maldives has 20 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and out of these only seven cases are currently active, and 13 of them recovered.
The World Health Organization has classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The novel coronavirus has infected over 1.7 million people and claimed over 108,838 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 404,497 people have recovered.
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