COVID-19: 138 new infections; 7,022 vaccinations

Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Wednesday, announced 138 additional cases of the new coronavirus, increasing confirmed coronavirus cases in Maldives to 25,191.

According to HPA, the 138 new cases include; 84 cases from the greater Male’ region, 44 cases from residential islands outside Male’, 6 cases from operational resorts, and 4 case from industrial islands.

Meanwhile, 116 additional coronavirus patients were confirmed to have made full recoveries over the last 24 hours, increasing total recoveries to 22,014.

With the new developments, Maldives now has 3,101 active cases.

There are 88 patients in hospitals.

4,034 samples (including repeated samples) have been tested for the new coronavirus over the last 24-hours.

With the 138 new infections this Wednesday, 1,112 people have tested positive over the last one-week period.

April 7: 138 cases

April 6: 145 cases

April 5: 125 cases

April 4: 132 cases

April 3: 103 cases

April 2: 169 cases

April 1: 300 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.

67 coronavirus patients have died from complications.

VACCINE DRIVE

Maldives began mass vaccinations against the new coronavirus on February 1.  HPA states 7,022 people were vaccinated on Wednesday. Of the 7,022 people, 4,404 received their first dose – 380 from greater Male’ region and 4,024 from the atolls, and 2,618 received their second dose – 2,471 from greater Male’ region and 147 from the atolls.

Total 255,881 people have now received their first dose under program, while 7,951 have received their second dose.

Over 57 percent of the total eligible population in Maldives have now received their first dose.

Maldives has received 200,000 doses of the Covishield developed AstraZeneca and Oxford from India, 100,000 Covishield doses procured from Serum Institute of India, and an additional 12,000 Covishield doses and 5,850 Pfizer doses through COVAX. The country has also received a donation of 200,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China. The country has also ordered more doses of Covishield vaccine – 700,000 doses through an agreement with AstraZeneca and 100,000 more doses through an agreement with Serum Institute of India.