Health Protection Agency confirmed on Saturday confirmed two additional COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of individuals that tested positive in Male' City to 11.

According to the agency, the tenth case (MAV030) was a 'direct contact' of case MAV027, while the eleventh case (MAV031) was a 'direct contact' of case MAV028. Both MAV027 and MAV028 were isolated cases that tested positive on Friday, after presenting to flu clinics with COVID-19-like symptoms.

HPA is currently transferring the two new confirmed cases to an isolation facility.

Although the country previously 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 tested positive for the virus on April 15.

Since then, ten 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.

On April 17 alone, five people have been tested positive for coronavirus, marking the highest number of positive cases recorded in the country within 24hrs.

Maldives now has 31 confirmed and 15 active cases of COVID-19, with a total of 16 recoveries. A total of 1,053 suspect cases were placed in quarantine while 61 others have been isolated.

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 154,241 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 571,577 people have recovered.