Govt. to increase daily testing capacity to 600

National Emergency Operations Center, on Saturday, announced the decision to increase the daily COVID-19 testing capacity to 600.

At the NEOC press briefing on Saturday night, spokesperson Mabrouq Azeez said that the testing for COVID-19 was done manually, and that testing can therefore only be done within the range of 600 to 650.

Mabrouq said that the government would bring in a new machine to bolster its testing capacity on May 17, and was preparing to procure another machine through State Trading Organization (STO).

He said that the government had initiated efforts to buy the machines in late April.

“And we are also engaged in additional efforts with regard to this. I want to share that an additional machine used for testing is also being brought in. And we are working on procuring more machines, in addition to gene expert machines, which will be situated across Maldives. It will allow us to conduct testing in five regions of the country without requiring too many lab technicians.

Health experts project Maldives to experience a significant surge in the end of May with 1,600 cases, straining ICUs.

The latest projections indicate Maldives could experience 77,305 infections, 13,568 hospitalizations, and 5,805 critical cases requiring ICU treatment.

Health experts have stressed the need to increase testing capacity, and isolate and treat patients as soon as possible, before they succumb to life threatening complications or they pass the infection to others.

790 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Maldives. 27 have since recovered, and three have died from complications.