COVID-19: Maldives records 40th death

Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Sunday night, confirmed the 40th COVID-19 related death in Maldives.

The deceased was an 43-year-old Bangladeshi man, who was brought to Hulhumalé Hospital in an unresponsive state and declared dead on arrival at 0725 hrs in the morning.

Authorities did not reveal further information about the deceased individual.

He marks the seventh expatriate to have succumbed to the virus in Maldives local to have succumbed to the virus in Maldives, including five more Bangladeshi nationals and a Filipino citizen. The remaining fatalities consist of 33 Maldivians.

With this development, the island nation currently records a total of 11,986 virus cases of which 847 are active cases, in addition to 11,092 recoveries and 40 deaths.

During 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. Throughout October the numbers had slipped further down below 50, with a few spikes on rare occasions.

Within this same period, the number of recoveries saw a significant increase, bringing the number of recovered cases to over 92 percent.

Despite the sustained decrease in virus cases, HPA 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, WHO classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. To date, the new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 50.5 million people and claimed over 1.2 million lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 35.6 million people have recovered.