COVID-19: Daily cases hit 97 with 47 positives from Addu

Authorities, on Wednesday night, confirmed 97 new COVID-19 cases in Maldives, of which 47 were identified in Addu Atoll while the remaining were identified in the Greater Male' region.

According to the Health Protection Agency (HPA), the newly identified cases include 42 locals and 55 foreigners.

Speaking at the press conference held by the Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC), the centre's Spokesperson and HPA's Medical Officer Dr Nazla Rafeeq assured that the 47 cases identified in Addu were quarantine release samples, and therefore, does not pose any risk to the island communities.

Dr Nazla stated that the samples were collected from amongst 128 construction workers that flew directly from India to Addu on September 13. Till 1800hrs, 47 of them had tested positive for the virus, but Dr Nazla noted that results were still coming in for some of the individuals.

Wednesday's number of cases, just three infections short from hitting three-digits, mark the highest number of positives recorded in the island nation during the past few weeks.

After a long period of recording over 100 daily cases, the numbers have fallen to two-digits during the most part of September, as the number of recovered increased in comparison.

Authorities reported a total of 71 recoveries for the day, bringing the total percentage of recovered cases to 88.5.

HPA revealed that in addition to the Greater Male' Region, active virus cases are currently present in 22 inhabited islands as well as 22 resorts across the archipelago.

With these developments, Maldives currently records a total of 10,291 virus cases of which 1,142 are active cases, in addition to 9,108 recoveries and 34 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.

Despite the sustained decrease in virus cases, HPA has renewed calls for citizens to adhere to protective measures to contain the spread of the virus, cautioning against a public sentiment that the outbreak has been “controlled”.

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 34 million people and claimed over 1 million lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 25.3 million people have recovered.