The state, on Friday, gazetted the policies on revealing the identity of COVID-19 patients and non-compliant suspect cases.
According to the policies, the Director General of Public Health is allowed to disclose details about patients and suspect-cases, in certain circumstances to protect the safety of the general public.
If the situation arises where a certain individual carrying the virus endangers the the public health to a critical level, their information can be publicised up to a necessary extent.
Director General of Public Health can also disclose the name of a deceased patient if their death certificate lists COVID-19 as the cause of death.
Moreover, the Director General can also reveal the identities of suspect cases who refuse to comply with the authorities orders to be placed in quarantine or isolation, as a precautionary measure to minimise the virus transmission from the individual.
In any case, the Director General of Public Health must consider the following:
- the chances of controlling the virus if the patient's identity is disclosed
- the result of the action
- the belief that the situation is dire enough for the disclosure to be necessary
- the negative impact on the public if the individual's identity remains confidential
- the chances for the individual's contacts and general public to take precautions due to the disclosure
- the amount of cooperation authorities receive from the individual in their efforts to control the disease
The only information that can be revealed about a special case, fulfilling all the requirements, are their full name, nationality, permanent address, temporary address, place of employment, photo and name and nature of the disease.
Although the country formerly recorded positive cases, there was no case of community transmission until April 15.
The first community transmission was (MAV021) a local female with no recent travel history, who presented to the flu clinic in Male after developing symptoms. She was tested positive on April 15.
Since then, eight more patients, from three different clusters, have tested positive for the virus. Authorities are currently conducting contact tracing for these cases and have identified 305 contacts for case MAV021, MAV022, and MAV023, out of which 157 individuals are direct contacts, while the rest are secondary contacts.
In response to the first local transmission of the coronavirus, 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 lockdown has now been extended until May 1.
Maldives now has 32 confirmed and 16 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 150,810 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 564,210 people have recovered.
