Samples taken from 11 direct contacts of virus patient from Male’

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, on Wednesday, announced that the person who tested positive for COVID-19 from Male’ did not have direct contact with anyone who had previously tested positive for the disease, and that samples had been taken from 11 people who had direct contact with her.

The populous Maldivian capital Male’ City identified its first COVID-19 case this morning; a woman who resides in the Maafannu district and has no recent travel history overseas. It has prompted the Director General of Public Health, Maimoona Aboobakuru to order a 24-hour lockdown on Male’ City and its suburbs Hulhumale’ and Vilimale’.

President Solih delivered a televised national address this afternoon.

He said the government had prepared for the possibility of an outbreak within Male’, and was implementing measures to contain the spread.

“Based on the information we have at this time, the person does not have a recent travel history overseas. And there is no information to suggest the person had direct contact with any other confirmed case. Therefore, we are working on establishing how the person contracted the virus,” he said.

HPA had deployed a rapid response team to conduct contact tracing immediately upon confirmation of the case.

“Therefore, the people who had contact with her have been identified. And work is in progress to identify more people who may have had contact. And based on the information so far, samples have been taken from 11 people at HPA’s directive,” said the President.

The President said the health and safety of the Maldivian people remained the government’s top priority, and urged cooperation and patience.