COVID-19: Maldives records 94 cases, 22 recoveries

The Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Friday, announced that 94 additional individuals tested positive for COVID-19 while 69 more recovered.

According to the agency, the new cases consist of 38 locals and 56 foreigners.

The Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC) revealed that 42 of the cases were identified from the recent outbreak on a developing resort island.

In addition to the Greater Male' Region, active virus cases are currently present in 13 inhabited islands as well as 27 resorts across the archipelago.

Maldives currently records a total of 12,452 virus cases of which 925 are active cases, in addition to 11, 474 recoveries and 45 deaths.

During August, 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.

After a long period of recording over 100 daily cases, the numbers fell to two-digits during the most part of September. Throughout October the numbers had slipped further down below 50, with a few spikes on rare occasions, including the recent spike as a result of four new virus clusters.

Within this same period, the number of recoveries saw a significant increase, bringing the number of recovered cases to over 90 percent

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 57.5 million people and claimed over 1.3 million lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 39.9 million people have recovered