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COVID-19: HPA announces 87 new cases, 31 recoveries in Maldives

Fathmath Shaahunaz
16 January 2021, MVT 22:06
Motorcyclists and cars head to the Sinamale' Bridge. FILE PHOTO / MIHAARU
Fathmath Shaahunaz
16 January 2021, MVT 22:06

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) on Saturday announced that 87 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Maldives, while 31 recovered from the disease.

According to the agency, 30 of the new cases were detected from the Greater Male' Region, while 13 cases were identified in inhabited islands, 41 in operational resorts and three on liveaboard.

HPA further noted that 32 of the resort cases were staff from Sun Siyam Olhuveli Resort.

Maldives now records a total of 14,426 virus cases of which 901 are active cases, in addition to 13,505 recoveries and 49 deaths.

Last 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 2020.

Throughout the rest of the year, numbers had slipped further down below 50, with a few spikes on rare occasions.

The number of recoveries have been recently high, bringing the number of recovered cases currently to nearly 94 percent.

HPA recently eased several safety measures imposed to control the spread of COVID-19. These leniencies include the cancellation of the city-wide curfew over the greater Male’ region, the reduction of quarantine periods to 10 days as well as cancelling mandatory quarantine for locals returning to Maldives and for locals travelling to resorts.

Despite the sustained decrease in virus cases, the agency 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, 2020, WHO classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. To date, the new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 94 million people and claimed over 2 million lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 67 million people have recovered.

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