As Maldives continue to record daily COVID-19 cases in hundreds, Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Tuesday, extended the safety measures implemented in the Greater Male' Region on February 3, 2021, by another 14 days.
The curfew prohibits civilians from roads and public spaces between 2300 to 0430 hrs, while vehicle movements are banned between 2030 to 0430 hrs. The restrictions are implemented across capital Male', its suburbs Vilimale' and Hulhumale', airport island Hulhule', industrial island Gulhifalhu and landfill island Thilafushi. HPA will also implement a ban on parks and other public spaces, with the exception of outdoor gyms which may be used for individual exercise in accordance with virus safety guidelines. Similarly, team sports are also temporarily banned. Authorities also prohbit any sort of gathering including more than 10 ndividuals.
Other stringent measures introduced by HPA on February 3, to curb the spread of COVID-19 include the shutdown of colleges and preschools, and daycare centres.
Furthermore, in a new first, HPA had mandated individuals permitted to travel from Male' to other islands for essential and urgent purposes, to obtain a negative PCR test 72-hours prior to departure.
The aforementioned measures were announced after virus cases in the country exceeded the 200 mark on Monday, for the first time since August 2, 2020.
Maldives 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.
Currently, the island nation records a total of 18,082 virus cases of which 2,384 are active cases, in addition to 15,633 recoveries and 58 deaths.
Sign In