State of Health Emergency extended till end of March

A further extension of the State of Public Health Emergency declared in the Maldives in light of the COVID-19 pandemic has been announced.

A declaration signed by Health Minister Ahmed Naseem which was publicized on Sunday read that it has been decided that the State of Public Health Emergency will be extended until March 30.

The declaration further detailed that the extension was a precautionary measure taken under the advice of Health Protection Agency's (HPA) Director-General of Public Health Maimoona Aboobakuru, as the risk of a large scale community spread is still imminent.

Maldives declared its first-ever State of Public Health Emergency on March 12, 2020, for a period of 30 days. The period has been extended every month which followed.

The COVID-19 situation in the Maldives is still on alert level red.

In the last 24 hours, HPA announced 484 additional cases of COVID-19, increasing confirmed cases in Maldives to 169,632.     

Meanwhile, 618 additional COVID-19 patients were confirmed to have made full recoveries over the last 24 hours, increasing total recoveries to 154,246.    

With the new developments, Maldives now has 15,076 active cases.      

There are 16 patients in hospitals.