Telecommunication giant Dhiraagu on Sunday gifted 15 kiosks to Ministry of Health to use with sample collection for COVID-19 testing.
According to Health Ministry, this donation would help reduce the usage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits, as sample kiosks allow health care workers to collect samples safely while maintaining adequate social distances.
Health Ministry stated that sampling kiosks will ensure additional safety for health professionals.
The kiosks, manufactured by local Print Lab in a collaborative effort with Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF), will be used in five areas across Maldives in addition to capital Malé.
Noting that the usage of sampling kiosks is a monumental step to guaranteeing the safety of health care workers, Dhiraagu added that a large number of samples can be collected via the kiosks at this time when there is a difficulty in procuring PPE.
Dhiraagu added that the company will provide assistance to all frontliners working in Maldives' COVID-19 response.
With this development, Maldives now records 527 confirmed, 507 active cases of COVID-19 and a total of 18 recoveries. The country recorded its first virus death, an 83-year-old local female, on Wednesday evening.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 3.5 million people and claimed over 248,313 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 1.1 million people have recovered.
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