COVID-19: Maldives registers 26 new cases

The Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Friday, announced that 26 further individuals have tested positive for COVID-19.

According to the agency, 14 of the cases were identified from the Greater Male' Region, while another eight cases were from an inhabited island, three from operational resorts and a single case was identified on a liveaboard vessel.

Maldives currently records a total of 13,444 virus cases of which 553 are active cases, in addition to 12,836 recoveries and 48 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 spikes 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 94 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 74.8 million people and claimed over 1.6 million lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 52.6 million people have recovered.