A year on from Maldives’ first COVID-19 case, HEOC warns health workers now ‘exhausted’

Health Emergency Operations Center (HEOC) states health workers in Maldives are exhausted, battling COVID-19 infection rates which refuse to drop, in the one year that has passed since the country confirmed its first case.

Maldives confirmed its first COVID-19 cases on March 7, 2020 – two expatriate workers in a resort who were direct contacts of an Italian tourist who was found to be positive for the virus upon return to his home country.

In a press conference last Sunday night, Dr. Moosa Hussain, a member of the Clinical Management Advisory Team, said that over 2,500 COVID-19 patients have been hospitalized in the one year that has passed since Maldives confirmed its first case.

Dr. Moosa said 92 of the patients developed serious illnesses requiring treatment on the 11^th floor of Dharumavantha Hospital in Male’. 21 of the patients were put on ventilators, out of whom 16 died.

In an effort to ramp up the health system’s capacity to deal with COVID-19, Maldives brought in medical students studying overseas. However, the students have since returned back to continue their studies following the reopening of colleges and universities.

Dr. Moosa said that while the number of health workers has now decreased, the number of people getting infected with COVID-19 hasn’t dropped.

There are a limited number of health workers in Maldives and they need to treat both COVID-19 patients and patients with other medical conditions, he stressed.

“The number of people testing positive and the number of people who require hospitalization isn’t decreasing. Therefore, health workers and others involved in this are now exhausted,” he said.

Dr. Moosa appealed for everyone to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

Maldives has 20,794 confirmed cases, including 131 new cases on Sunday. 18,124 of the patients have since recovered, while 64 have died from complications.

The country currently has 2,559 active cases. 166 of the patients are hospitalized.

Maldives began mass vaccination against COVID-19 on February 1. Over 151,000 people have been administered the first dose of the Covishield vaccine. 

He said that COVID-19 isn’t just dangerous for the elderly, but also for young people – noting that pneumonia has been detected in lungs of younger patients.

He said that getting vaccinated will significantly reduce the risk of developing serious illness from COVID-19.