COVID-19: 109 new infections; 2,575 people vaccinated

Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Saturday, announced 109 additional cases of the new coronavirus, increasing confirmed coronavirus cases in Maldives to 16,656.

According to HPA, the 109 new cases include; 78 cases from the greater Male’ region, 11 cases from residential islands outside Male’, and 20 cases from operational resorts.

Meanwhile, 84 additional coronavirus patients were confirmed to have made full recoveries over the last 24 hours, increasing total recoveries to 14,556.

With the new developments, Maldives now has 2,039 active cases.

There are 207 patients in hospitals.

430,513 samples (including repeated samples) have been tested for the new coronavirus to date.

With the 109 new infections this Saturday, 920 people have tested positive over the last one-week period.

February 6: 109 cases

February 5: 137 cases

February 4: 134 cases

February 3: 121 cases

February 2: 99 cases

February 1: 215 cases

January 31: 105 cases

Maldives identified its first coronavirus case on March 7, and declared a state of public health emergency over the pandemic less than a week later on March 12.

While coronavirus cases had initially been restricted to resorts and safaris, and later quarantine facilities holding inbound travelers, Male’ City identified its first coronavirus case on April 15, prompting a city-wide lockdown.

The populous capital quickly emerged as the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Maldives, contributing to the majority of total cases.

54 coronavirus patients have died from complications.

VACCINE DRIVE

Maldives began mass vaccinations against the new coronavirus on February 1.  HPA states 2,575 people were vaccinated on Saturday. Of the 2,575 people vaccinated on Saturday, 2,015 were from the greater Male’ region while 560 were from the atolls.

Total 6,854 people have now been inoculated under program; 5,588 from the greater Male’ region and 1,266 from the atolls.

Maldives received a donation of 100,000 doses of the Covishield developed AstraZeneca and Oxford in January and has ordered 700,000 more doses of the same vaccine – which they expect to receive in March. Meanwhile, China also donated 100,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine – which have yet to arrive in Maldives. The donation follows 5,000 doses of the same vaccine donated by well-wishers from China.

Maldives also expects to receive the first shipment of vaccines from World Health Organization (WHO) this February.