Maldivian Medical Association (MMA) and Teachers' Association of Maldives (TAM) on Tuesday urged the government to temporarily halt educational institutions in a bid to curb the COVID-19 outbreak.
We MMA highly recommend to Temporarily HALT any form of public gathering including schools as a containment step of the current COVID 19 viral outbreaks.@HPA_MV @MoHmv @MoEdumv @presidencymv
— Maldivian Medical Association (MMA) (@mma_mv) March 10, 2020
As per the advice of medical professionals, we request the government to bring a temporary halt in reopening of schools as a precautionary measure regarding the COVID19 viral outbreak. The health of our educators, students and staff should be the first priority @MoEdumv @aisthly
— Teachers' Association of Maldives (@TAMaldives) March 11, 2020
However, Minister of Health Aishath Ali stated that a situation to suspend the operation of schools has yet to present itself.
Social distancing is not a question of absolute numbers, it is a question of density - i.e. keeping the distance.
— Marcel Salathé (@marcelsalathe) March 10, 2020
Preparing slides for the next #COVID19 update, but could perhaps be helpful already.
Left: safe distance, no transmission. Right: too dense, possible transmissions pic.twitter.com/4JBlGuVPPn
ADK Hospital's Chief Medical Officer and Paediatrician Dr Abdulla Niyaf, on Tuesday, said that "it would be wise to close" down schools. He also urged the government to consider online teaching platforms as a viable alternative.
Presently there are eight confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Maldives.
The virus, which originated from Wuhan City in Hubei Province, China, has infected over 118,000 worldwide and claimed the lives of more than 4,200 people. From those infected, over 65,100 have recovered from the disease.
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