COVID-19 cases rise to 1,216 with 30 new infections

Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Thursday, announced 30 new cases of COVID-19, increasing total cases in Maldives to 1,216.

According to HPA, the new cases are 14 Maldivians, 10 Bangladeshis and six Indians.

The 30 new cases on Thursday mark a 30 percent drop from the 43 new cases confirmed by HPA the day before; 28 Bangladeshis, 10 Maldivians, four Indians and one Nepali.

The 1,216 confirmed cases in Maldives include 622 Bangladeshis, 434 Maldivians, 118 Indians, 16 Nepalese, eight Sri Lankans and three Pakistanis.

91 have since recovered, while four have died from complications.

Health authorities recently initiated antibody tests to identify how many had recovered from COVID-19 without having been aware of contracting the virus in the first place. The first round of antibody tests target congested labor quarters in the Maldivian capital, Male’ City.

Health authorities project a significant surge in virus cases by the end of May. According to the projections, virus cases in the country may exceed 6,000, overwhelming the health system.

Health authorities later said that the measures put in place to control the spread of the virus had been effective in pushing down new cases, and urged the public to continue to comply with the measures.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, in an address to the Maldivian people on Wednesday, said that the government planned on easing restrictive measures once the current period of the lockdown on the capital expires, if the lockdown measures proved to be effective in pushing down virus numbers.

He also warned that easing of restrictive measures did not mean the end of the pandemic or the danger it posed.

The current lockdown period expires on May 28.

Maldives identified its first virus case, in Kuredu resort, on March 7, and has been in a state of public health emergency since March 12.

While virus cases had initially been restricted to resorts and safaris, and later inbound travelers in quarantine facilities, the populous Maldivian capital identified its first virus case on April 15 – prompting a lockdown on the Greater Male’ Region.

Male’ quickly became the epicenter of coronavirus outbreak in Maldives, contributing to over 1,100 of the total virus cases.

Maldives, in an effort to curb the spread of the virus, has also imposed a nationwide ban on all non-essential travel, closed schools and government offices, and has ordered a temporary ban on mass gatherings in mosques in an effort to control the spread of the disease.