54 people isolated following contact with virus patient from Male’

Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Wednesday, announced that 54 people who had close contact with the person who tested positive for COVID-19 from Male’ had been isolated.

Male’ City identified its first COVID-19 case earlier this Wednesday; a woman who resides in the Maafannu district of the capital who 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’.

At a National Emergency Operations Center press briefing this evening, Health Minister Abdulla Ameen said the new patient had neither travelled overseas recently, nor had any contact with a person who had previously tested positive for the disease.

Meanwhile, Dr. Nazla Rafeeq, a Medical Officer at Health Protection Agency (HPA), said the agency was working on identifying the people who had contact with the patient, starting from two days prior to getting symptomatic.

“We have isolated 54 direct contacts so far. And additional contact tracing continues at a rapid pace. We believe more will be isolated today,” said Dr. Nazla.

She said the HPA was also making lists of all the people the close contacts of the patients had contact with, as a precautionary manner.

While they have not been ordered to strict isolation, they have been instructed to practice home-isolation, she said.

“It total, there are approximately four houses.  And people who the patient had contact with, in going to the doctor, and in various other ways,” said Dr. Nazla.

She noted that identifying the source from which the patient contracted the disease was vital to controlling an outbreak in Male’.

“Identifying the source from which the patient contracted the disease; this is of equal importance to us at this time as contact tracing in order to control the spread. Our teams are working speedily on both these tasks,” said Dr. Nazla.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, in his address to the national earlier this evening, said that samples had been taken from 11 direct contacts of the patient.