Maafushi Prison in state of emergency as jail officers, detainees test positive

Maafushi Prison is currently under a state of emergency, subsequent to some jail officers and detainees testing positive for COVID-19.

In a statement released today, Maldives Correctional Service said that samples taken from seven jail officers and four detainees exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19, had come back positive.

Therefore, in accordance with Health Protection Agency (HPA) guidelines and Corrections’ regulations, Maafushi Prison will be placed under a state of emergency starting from 4:00pm, today.

With these developments, some changes have been brought to the services provided at the Prison. In this regard, until normalcy, lawyer meetings, family meetings and court hearings for detainees will be carried out online. Corrections did not specify a date when the state of emergency will be revoked at Maafushi Prison.

With rising COVID-19 cases across all parts of the country, health authorities have sounded the orange alert instead of the yellow in addition to reinforcing restrictive measures.

Statistics publicized by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) on Thursday confirmed additional 816 cases of COVID-19 cases, bringing the total cases in Maldives to 100,451.      

According to HPA, the new cases include; 413 cases from the greater Male’ region, 249 cases from residential islands outside Male’, 92 cases from operational resorts and 15 cases from liveaboards.

With these new developments, Maldives now has 5,118 active cases.

There are 25 patients in hospitals