COVID-19: 166 new infections; 2,434 vaccinations

Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Saturday, announced 166 additional cases of the new coronavirus, increasing confirmed coronavirus cases in Maldives to 23,403.

According to HPA, the 166 new cases include; 91 cases from the greater Male’ region, 52 cases from residential islands outside Male’, 11 cases from operational resorts, 11 cases from liveaboards, and 1 case from industrial islands.

Meanwhile, 89 additional coronavirus patients were confirmed to have made full recoveries over the last 24 hours, increasing total recoveries to 20,618.

With the new developments, Maldives now has 2,712 active cases.

There are 98 patients in hospitals.

4,283 samples (including repeated samples) have been tested for the new coronavirus over the last 24-hours.

With the 166 new infections this Saturday, 1,030 people have tested positive over the last one-week period.

March 27: 166 cases

March 26: 146 cases

March 25: 162 cases

March 24: 139 cases

March 23: 128 cases

March 22: 149 cases

March 21: 140 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.

66 coronavirus patients have died from complications.

VACCINE DRIVE

Maldives began mass vaccinations against the new coronavirus on February 1.  HPA states 2,434 people were vaccinated on Saturday. Of the 2,434 people, 1,016 were from the greater Male’ region, and 1,418 were from the atolls.

Total 230,130 people have now been inoculated under program; 128,293 from the greater Male’ region, and 101,837 from the atolls.

Maldives has received 200,000 doses of the Covishield developed AstraZeneca and Oxford from India, an additional 12,000 Covisheild doses and 5,850 Pfizer doses through COVAX. The country has also ordered 1 million more doses of Covishield 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. China has also delivered a donation of 100,000 doses of the same vaccine, and is scheduled to deliver 100,000 more doses on March 30.