COVID-19: 145 new infections; 5,283 vaccinations

Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Saturday, announced 145 additional cases of the new coronavirus, increasing confirmed coronavirus cases in Maldives to 18,612.

According to HPA, the 145 new cases include; 89 cases from the greater Male’ region, 22 cases from residential islands outside Male’, 32 cases from operational resorts, and 2 cases from liveaboards.

Meanwhile, 96 additional coronavirus patients were confirmed to have made full recoveries over the last 24 hours, increasing total recoveries to 16,061.

With the new developments, Maldives now has 2,484 active cases.

There are 162 patients in hospitals.

3,883 samples (including repeated samples) have been tested for the new coronavirus over the last 24-hours.

With the 145 new infections this Saturday, 904 people have tested positive over the last one-week period.

February 20: 145 cases

February 19: 127 cases

February 18: 116 cases

February 17: 142 cases

February 16: 129 cases

February 15: 125 cases

February 14: 120 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.

60 coronavirus patients have died from complications.

VACCINE DRIVE

Maldives began mass vaccinations against the new coronavirus on February 1.  HPA states 5,283 people were vaccinated on Saturday. Of the 5,283 people, 3,755 were from the greater Male’ region while 1,528 were from the atolls.

Total 70,009 people have now been inoculated under program; 53,669 from the greater Male’ region and 16,340 from the atolls.

Maldives has received 200,000 doses of the Covishield developed AstraZeneca and Oxford from India and has ordered 700,000 more doses of the same vaccine – which they expect to receive in March. Maldives has also received 5,000 doses of Sinopharm as a donation, and China has pledged a donation of 100,000 more doses of the same vaccine.

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