COVID-19: 81 new infections; 599 vaccinations

Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Saturday, announced 81 additional cases of the new coronavirus, increasing confirmed coronavirus cases in Maldives to 22,373.

According to HPA, the 81 new cases include; 52vcases from the greater Male’ region, 22 cases from residential islands outside Male’, and 7 cases from operational resorts.

Meanwhile, 124 additional coronavirus patients were confirmed to have made full recoveries over the last 24 hours, increasing total recoveries to 19,897.

With the new developments, Maldives now has 2,404 active cases.

There are 107 patients in hospitals.

4,886 samples (including repeated samples) have been tested for the new coronavirus over the last 24-hours.

With the 81 new infections this Saturday, 897 people have tested positive over the last one-week period.

March 20: 81 cases

March 19: 145 cases

March 18: 186 cases

March 17: 142 cases

March 16: 153 cases

March 15: 94 cases

March 14: 96 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.

65 coronavirus patients have died from complications.

VACCINE DRIVE

Maldives began mass vaccinations against the new coronavirus on February 1.  HPA states 599 people were vaccinated on Saturday – all of them from the atolls.

Total 218,645 people have now been inoculated under program; 121,630 from the greater Male’ region, and 97,015 from the atolls.

Maldives has received 200,000 doses of the Covishield developed AstraZeneca and Oxford from India and additional 12,000 doses through COVAX. The country has also ordered 1 million more doses of the same vaccine – 700,000 doses through an agreement with AstraZeneca and 300,000 doses through an agreement with Serum Institute of India. Maldives has also received 5,000 doses of Sinopharm as a donation, and China has pledged a donation of 200,000 more doses of the same vaccine.