The Technical Advisory Group (TAG), on Sunday night, warned that COVID-19 cases may have to be triaged in the near future if the situation in Maldives continued to worsen.
Speaking at the press conference held by the Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC), TAG's leader Dr Ali Latheef revealed that, if positive cases continue to be identified at the current rate, health facilities may have to pick and choose patients that will receive treatment.
"Selecting which patients to be admitted or hooked to ventilators will be a very difficult and despairing task", Dr Latheef said.
Noting that it would be challenging for any country to manage the ongoing pandemic if positive cases soar beyond the health sector's capacity to carry out testing and treatment, he expressed concern that this would be impossible in a small country like Maldives with limited resources.
According to the Health Protection Agency (HPA)'s statistics, a total of 140 daily new cases were recorded within the past week, adding up to a total of 980 infections.
These numbers indicate an alarmingly high number of infections per capita, considering the island nation's total population of 400,000.
Statistics show that it took 56 days for the number of COVID-19 cases in Maldives to climb to 500 after the first recorded infection. However, the country now records an additional 500 cases every three to four days.
TAG warned that this could result in hospitals reaching maximum capacity, as the number of patients that require hospitalised treatment is at an all-time high.
"Taking these numbers into account, we cannot manage [treatment]. If numbers rise to 200 and 300, even if we have the bed capacity in hospitals, we cannot manage [treatment]", Dr Latheef reiterated.
HEOC's spokesperson and HPA's medical officer Dr Nazla Rafeeq revealed earlier on Sunday that 62 percent of hospital beds allocated for COVID-19 patients in the Greater Male' region are currently occupied, bringing the country to Alert Level Two in terms of bed occupancy.
Dr Latheef reminded the public that Maldives lacked the human resources to cater to patients, even if a large hospital was to established with additional bed capacity.
"This is a very despairing situation", he said.
The lack of healthcare personnel in Maldives has been a major concern since the outbreak first reached the shores of the island nation.
Dr Latheef noted that most of the frontline workers were now fatigued, in addition to many of them testing positive for the virus.
The aforementioned challenges add to the fear that the health sector may fall short at providing adequate care for infected patients, he said.
"Even now, it is difficult because we do not have enough doctors and nurses. In other countries too, patients mostly die because proper treatment cannot be provided".
Noting that the healthcare workers also have to attend to patients admitted for other health complications as well, Dr Nazla stated that nurses may struggle to care for COVID-19 patients.
Despite recording significantly low numbers in the months of May and June, the number of COVID-19 cases skyrocketed after the state initiated efforts to steer the country towards a 'new normal' with the phased easing of lockdown restrictions across the Greater Male' Region.
As one of the most densely populated cities in the world, Maldives' capital Malé continues to record a significant number of COVID-19 cases, similar to the first weeks following the first confirmed local transmission on April 15.
Authorities are repeatedly asking the public to adhere to HPA's safety guidelines in order to reduce the spread of virus and reduce the number of infections recorded in the island nation.
Maldives currently records total 6,779 confirmed and 2,530 active COVID-19 cases, along with 4,222 recoveries and 27 deaths.
On March 12, WHO classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. To date, the new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 23.5 million people and claimed over 812,600 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 16.0 million people have recovered.
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