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COVID-19: HEOC confirms 29th death in Maldives

Mariyam Malsa
01 September 2020, MVT 09:48
Health workers amid an ambulance drill in the capital city of Male'. PHOTO: NISHAN ALI/ MIHAARU
Mariyam Malsa
01 September 2020, MVT 09:48

Health Emergency Operation Center (HEOC), on Tuesday, confirmed the 29th COVID-19-related death in Maldives.

The deceased was a 79-year-old Maldivian male, who was receiving emergency treatment at the DH11 facility in state-run Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH).

He passed away at 0142 hrs and is the 23rd local to have succumbed to the virus. The remaining fatalities are five Bangladeshi nationals and a Filipino citizen.

With this development, the island nation now records a total of 7,804 confirmed and 2,615 active COVID-19 cases, along with 5,155 recoveries and 29 deaths.

In addition to the Greater Male' region, active virus cases are present in 31 inhabited islands as well as 15 resorts across the archipelago.

After recording significantly low numbers in the months of May and June, the island nation recorded a significant rise in the number of COVID-19 cases per capita, indicating an alarming community spread in the country.

With the increasing number of infections, the number of recoveries has also risen in the past couple of weeks, after the recent spike reduced the total amount of recovered patients from the peak 86 to the lowest 53 percent. This value currently stands at 66 percent.

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

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 25.6 million people and claimed over 854,700 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 17.9 million people have recovered.

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