Police revealed early Thursday that they helped provide temporary shelter to 24 homeless individuals in the capital Male, amidst the lockdown enforced by the government.
As per Police, the individuals identified as being homeless were taken to temporary accommodations and were provided with state-arranged meals as well.
📸: #MaafannuPolice officers distributing food arranged by the government, to the homeless people on the streets. Their temporary accommodation has also been arranged by the government and @maldivianrc, during this lockdown. @MoGFSSmv @MVIaffairs @MoEdumv#COVID19Maldives pic.twitter.com/BjZpTPbhEG
— Maldives Police (@PoliceMv) April 15, 2020
Speaking to The Edition, Police spokesperson Izmiya confirmed that while Gender Ministry, along with Maldivian Red Cresent are leading the efforts, police officers are working to facilitate food delivery and management of shelters.
As per an update given by the police later in the day, a total of 48 homeless individuals including locals and expatriates were provided temporary shelter by the government.
UPDATE: Till this moment, we have taken a total of 48 homeless people on the streets to the temporary accommodation provided by the government. This includes 2 local women, 44 local men and 2 expatriates.@MoGFSSmv @maldivianrc @MVIaffairs @MoEdumv #COVID19Maldives
— Maldives Police (@PoliceMv) April 16, 2020
A 24-hour lockdown was announced by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) after Maldives recorded its first local transmission of COVID-19. HPA issued a Red alert for Male' City and placed the greater Male' region under lockdown for 24 hours, beginning 1530 hrs on Wednesday afternoon.
The lockdown prohibits all civilians sans those with special permits to leave their residences, as well as a ban on all land and sea transportation within the area.
This first case of local transmission was soon followed by two additional cases, both of whom the HPA revealed as 'direct contacts" of the first patient found positive for COVID-19 in Male.
With the lockdown, Police have asked citizens to submit for a request to go out of residences for essential needs only.
Use https://t.co/Om2lONenjr for requesting permits to go out of residences for ESSENTIAL needs. When the request is approved or rejected the applicant will be informed via SMS.
— Fairoosh (@fairoosh) April 16, 2020
For delivery permits, mail to [email protected]
With these new developments, Maldives now has 23 confirmed and seven active cases of COVID-19, with a total of 16 recoveries.
The World Health Organization has classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The novel coronavirus has infected over two million people and claimed over 134,508 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 509,880 people have recovered.
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