State Trading Organization (STO) on Tuesday completed delivery for over 6,900 units of staple food sacks to different areas in capital Male' and to boats departing to local islands.
Speaking at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) press briefing held on Wednesday, Communications Undersecretary at the President’s Office Mabrouq Abdul Azeez assured that STO would continue to deliver staple food supplies to shops on a daily basis during the lockdown. In that regard, Mabrook noted that STO had completed 201 deliveries in Malé of a total of 2,450 sacks of rice, 1,289 sacks of flour, and 949 sacks on Tuesday.
In addition to the deliveries in Malé, STO had also arranged the delivery of staple food supplies to local islands via local agents. On Tuesday alone, STO facilitated the delivery of goods to 48 boats departing to local islands.
“These shipments included a total of 2,900 sacks of rice, 2,084 sacks of flour, 2,008 sacks of sugar”, Mabrook revealed, adding that an additional 26 deliveries with 1,590 sacks of rice and 1,000 sacks of flour and sugar to local islands were out on Wednesday.
Several shops across the country have run out of basic staple food supplies and have been unable to obtain the goods due to the strict lockdown measures enforced by the government over the spread of COVID-19. Several islands have reported low food supplies and difficulties in obtaining staple food such as rice, flour and sugar.
Speaking at the press, Mabrook reassured that the government was working to mitigate the difficulties in delivering food supplies to communities outside of Malé. He revealed that work was underway via a “lockdown committee” formed by the economic ministry and Maldives Ports Limited (MPL) to handle staple food delivery to local islands via boats. Mabrook added that the government was currently taking stock of supplies in local islands.
In response to the first case of COVID-19 recorded in the capital city of Male' on April 15, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) placed the greater Male' region under lockdown for 24 hours. Authorities extended the measures for a 14-day period on April 16 after new cases emerged. Two days after, a nationwide lockdown was announced, with strict travel restrictions in place with several cargo ships and vessels stranded at the port in Malé City, unable to leave. Further, vessels from local islands were unable to travel to the capital to collect essential goods.
Since, Maldives Police Service on Tuesday commenced issuing permits to cargo vessels and ships across the country to collect and transport essential cargo from the capital city of Male’ under HPA's regulations as well as directives issued by task forces established at islands. The ships are required to notify the task forces before departure and travel as per the guidelines set forth by the authorities.
At present, Maldives records 85 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There are a total 68 active and two probable patients, while 16 have recovered.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The novel coronavirus has infected over 2.6 million people and claimed over 184,219 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 717,759 people have recovered.
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