Commissioner of Police Mohamed Hameed on Sunday stated that 23 persons within Maldives Police Service tested positive for COVID-19, amid the local outbreak of the ongoing global pandemic.
In a tweet published by the Commissioner, he confirmed that the 23 officers, working on the frontlines of Maldives' response, were now placed in isolation.
Commissioner Hameed said that stringent measures were in place to contain the virus' spread among police personnel, and to ensure that police services to the community continue uninterrupted.
Spoke to all 23 of our officers & staff who are #COVID19 positive and put under isolation. It was fulfilling to know they all are doing well. Additionally we have about 293 officers & staff under managed isolation to mitigate spread from potential exposure to the positive cases.
— Mohamed Hameed (@M_Hameedh) May 17, 2020
On May 13, Chief of Maldives National Defence Force, Major General Abdulla Shamaal confirmed the infection of more than 40 officers with the COVID-19 virus.
According to the Major General, MNDF's confirmed cases mark the largest amount of afflicted frontliners belonging to one entity.
Since the lockdown, Maldives Police were active in the efforts to protect the privacy and security of quarantined households within the city, and to secure the island city's lockdown status by implementing protocol as laid out by the country's Health Protection Agency.
Collectively, MNDF and Police are collaborating with nearly every aspect of Maldives’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular following the first detection of community spread within capital city Male’, as well as after it was noted to have spread across to different atolls.
Maldives currently records 1,094 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 1,031 active cases. The country has reported four fatalities and a total of 59 recoveries till date.
WHO has classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 4.8 million people and claimed over 316,900 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, 1.86 million people have recovered.
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