Kuredu arranges departures for stranded guests, but remains closed to new arrivals

Kuredu, the island resort linked with the first confirmed COVID-19 case in Maldives, has made departure arrangements for the hundreds of guests left stranded following a lock down on the island ordered by heath authorities for prevention and control of the disease.

The four COVID-19 cases in Kuredu have been linked to an Italian tourist who vacationed at the resort in February. The tourist, though he had exhibited symptoms of the virus during his stay in Kuredu, had not been tested for the virus in Maldives. He had tested positive for the virus upon return to Italy. Those who tested positive for the virus from Kuredu are all foreign workers; the resort’s in-house doctor who treated him, a staff member of the dive center, and two more of the resort’s staff.

All four were moved to quarantine facilities, and the Health Protection Agency (HPA) ordered a lock down on the resort island as it conducted contact tracing.

The resort had been hosting 699 guests at the time.

HPA lifted the temporary restrictive measures it imposed on Kuredu and two more resort islands on Wednesday evening, while warning the management of the resorts to maintain the cordoned areas holding people identified as high-risk who must remain isolated for a mandated duration.

Kuredu, in a statement this Thursday, said that HPA remained based on the resort and were conducting health screenings on all guests.

“Once the health screening is carried out on all the guest and they are confirmed to be in good health, the guests are entitled to depart the island from 12th March 2020 onwards,” announced Kuredu.

The departures of guests who could not depart from March 7-11 are to be rescheduled according to their new international flight details.

While Kuredu has now made departure arrangements for its guests, it has decided against accepting new arrivals.

“For the moment, as a company decision, we will not accept new arrivals until further notice, so the future bookings will still be placed in other Crown & Champa properties and we will keep everyone posted with more details in the coming days,” said Kuredu.