COVID-19: Maldives records 50 new cases, 29 recoveries

The Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Monday, announced that a further 50 individuals tested positive for COVID-19 while 29 persons were reported as recovered.

According to the agency, 19 of the cases were identified from the Greater Male' Region, while three cases were identified in inhabited islands and the remaining 28 cases were found in operational resorts.

Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC) confirmed that 20 of the 50 new cases recorded on Monday tested positive from Sun Siyam Olhuveli Resort.

As per HEOC, further tests were conducted in the resort after three staff members and one contact tested positive, adding that 24 resort employees have tested positive till date.

The centre stated that 167 random samples were taken due to the outbreak, of which the results of 23 samples are still pending, and contact tracing us currently underway.

At present, Maldives records a total of 14,159 virus cases of which 738 are active cases, in addition to 13,365 recoveries and 49 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, November and December 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.

HPA recently eased several safety measures imposed to control the spread of COVID-19. These leniencies include the cancellation of the city-wide curfew over the greater Male’ region, the reduction of quarantine periods to 10 days as well as cancelling mandatory quarantine for locals returning to Maldives and for locals travelling to resorts.

Despite the sustained decrease in virus cases, the agency 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 90.8 million people and claimed over 1.9 million lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 64.9 million people have recovered.