The Health Protection Agency (HPA) on Sunday, conducted a mobile medical operation for migrant workers residing in living quarters currently under Maldives Police Service (MPS) surveillance.
This morning a mobile medical operation was initiated for migrants living in quarters under police surveillance.
— Health Protection Agency (@HPA_MV) May 17, 2020
A total of 80 persons were screened and provided the needed medical help.
An assessment of their current living conditions was also made. pic.twitter.com/xTiU1DkPA1
During the operation, HPA screened and provided medical assistance to a total of 80 expatriates. Furthermore, the agency conducted an assessment of their living conditions.
The COVID-19 outbreak in the capital has disproportionately affected the expatriate population, the majority of whom are Bangladeshi nationals living in highly congested quarters where it is impossible to reduce contact or exercise social distancing. Local and international civil society organizations describe these living quarters as, "claustrophobic", "unsanitary" and "overcrowded".
Since the beginning of the community-wide outbreak of COVID-19 in Maldives, the total number of Bangladeshi expatriates that have tested positive for the virus has surpassed 550. Foreign nations constitute roughly 65 percent of all recorded cases in the country.
Bangladeshi citizens make up the majority of the expatriate population in Maldives, which numbers at over 144,600, out of which authorities earlier estimated that 63,000 were undocumented.
Maldives currently records 1,078 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 1,015 active cases, 59 recoveries and 4 fatalities. Capital city Malé, one of the most densely populated places in the world, has recorded a significant increase in COVID-19 cases since recording its first local transmission on April 15.
The country recorded its first COVID-19 related death, of an 83-year-old local female, on April 29. Since, three more individuals, a 33-year-old Bangladeshi man, and two local men, an 80-year-old and an 88-year-old succumbed to COVID-19.
WHO has classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 4.7 million people and claimed over 313,498 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, 1.81 million people have recovered.
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