HPA orders 2-week shutdown of colleges, preschools

Due to an alarming spike of COVID-19 cases in Maldives, the Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Tuesday, ordered a two-week shutdown of all colleges and preschools in the Greater Male' area.

Although leeway was given for colleges to conduct practical sessions in line with HPA's guidelines, the agency instructed universities and colleges to hold online sessions starting from Wednesday onwards.

In addition to educational facilities, HPA also mandated the closure of daycare centres.

HPA's order, announced as a precaution due to the condensed virus cases found in the capital region, comes shortly after preschools reopened on January 10, nearly a year of interruption due to ongoing pandemic. The Maldives National University (MNU) had also finally opened its doors for students this Sunday.

However, Minister of Education Dr Aishath Ali asserted on Tuesday that the government is not yet entertaining any thoughts of shutting down any government-run schools.

According to her, the Education Ministry is currently seeking HPA's counsel on maintaining school operations, since "students will experience the negative effect of shutting down schools at this time for their lifetime".

She further asserted that "students' safety is the biggest priority" of the Education Ministry.

For the first time since August 2, 2020, virus cases in the country exceeded the 200 mark on Monday.

The country recently recorded a spike in COVID-19 cases, which has been increasing throughout January, with several clusters found in capital Male’ as well as some southern islands and operational resorts.

According to the Health Protection Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC), 30 percent of the recently identified cases are believed to be the highly contagious new variant that emerged in the United Kingdom late last year.

With the sudden spike in numbers, HPA announced a curfew from 2300hrs to 0430hrs in the capital region, and declared a vehicle ban from 2030hrs to 0430hrs, in addition to prohibiting large gatherings, as an attempt to control the spread of the virus.

Currently, the island nation records a total of 16,056 virus cases of which 1,807 are active cases, in addition to 14,190 recoveries and 52 deaths.