Concern grows as cases and contacts pile up

The National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) has stated that at the rate the country is going right now, there was a high chance that the number of positive cases would keep on increasing due to the high number of contacts.

The Maldives has now confirmed 396 cases, a staggering increase due to the fact that the first community case of the virus was identified just over two weeks ago. NEOC stated in a press conference that the figure was higher than what was initially projected.

“As we expected previously, our curve is going higher,”

“Looking at our current list of contacts, chances that case numbers may increase is very high.” Said Dr. Ibrahim Afzal, a member of the medical team at NEOC.

Dr. Afzal stated that the BZM cluster had the highest number of contacts. The cluster is the name given to the cases that originated in the Market area of the capital city. He added that the COV cluster in Hulhumale’ also numbered high. The cluster originated from the COVID village under construction in the suburb.

NEOC spokesperson Mabrouq Azeez stated that authorities have so far taken samples from 8008 individuals. Out of the figure, 396 samples had tested positive while 797 samples were currently pending.