The Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC), on Monday, revealed that an individual that returned to Maldives from the United Kingdom (UK) had tested positive for COVID-19.
HEOC stated that it was currently unable to confirm whether or not the aforementioned case is linked to the new COVID-19 variant which is rapidly spreading in UK at present.
According to the centre, the individual was allowed to enter Maldives after travelling to UK without being required to quarantine, as per the Health Protection Agency (HPA) announcement cancelling mandatory quarantine for locals returning from abroad.
However, HEOC also noted that the individual is a member of one of the families involved in a cluster of COVID-19 cases which originated recently following a wedding ceremony held in the capital city of Male' on December 20.
HEOC earlier announced that Maldives was on alert and working to strengthen the implementation of existing safety measures and enhance their scope.
Noting that new strains are detected once they begin to spread, HEOC spokesperson and HPA's Medical Officer Dr Nazla Rafeeq stressed the importance of adhering to virus safety guidelines despite the recent decrease in the daily average of new cases detected in Maldives.
Whereas several countries, including India, have barred flights from the UK due to the new strain, Maldivian authorities stated that they are currently deliberating on possible new measures to impose.
The British government has locked down London and areas in the south of the country where infections by the new strain are most concentrated. While the World Health Organization has reported infections in Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia, more than 50 countries have imposed travel restrictions on the UK.
The new variant of the coronavirus, which was initially reported from the south of England, is highly contagious and thought to be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original strain. However, authorities stated that infections caused by the COVID mutation were not more severe.
At present, Maldives records a total of 13,644 virus cases of which 517 are active cases, in addition to 13,072 recoveries and 48 deaths.
After a long period of recording over 100 daily cases during Maldives second surge of COVID-19, 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, including the recent spikes as a result of four new virus clusters.
Within this same period, the number of recoveries saw a significant increase, bringing the number of recovered cases to over 94 percent.
In response to the sustained decrease in cases, 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 or travelling to resorts.
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 81.1 million people and claimed over 1.7 million lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 57.2 million people have recovered.
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