COVID-19: HPA confirms 75 new cases, 73 recoveries

The Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Sunday, confirmed an additional 75 cases of COVID-19 and 73 recoveries in Maldives.

According to the agency, the new cases include 22 locals and 53 foreigners.

HPA revealed that 72 of the additional infections were reported in the Greater Male' Region, while the remaining three cases were detected from islands outside of the capital area.

In addition to the Greater Male' region, active virus cases are currently present in 24 inhabited islands as well as 26 resorts across the archipelago.

With these developments, Maldives currently records a total of 9,724 virus cases of which 1,424 are active cases, in addition to 8,261 recoveries and 33 deaths.

During last month, authorities tightened the safety measures implemented in the Greater Male' region, following an alarming upsurge of COVID-19 cases after the state initiated efforts to steer the country towards a 'new normal' with the phased easing of lockdown restrictions.

Authorities have stated that the effects of implementing stricter measures will be reflected in the case numbers towards the end of the month.

After a long period of recording over 100 daily cases, the numbers have slipped down to two-digits during the past two weeks.

Within this same period, the number of recoveries saw a significant increase, bringing the number of recovered cases to 84.8 percent.

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 31.1 million people and claimed over 963,200 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 22.7 million people have recovered.