124 out of the 5,048 samples collected for Covid-19 testing over the past 24 hours, returned positive for the infection.

Latest statistics by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) revealed that the new infections include 73 from residential islands, 26 from the Greater Malé Region, 13 from islands under development, nine from operational resorts and three from liveaboard vessels.

This has pushed the country’s total Covid-19 case count to 74,848, with the active case tally further dropping to 2,865 from Wednesday’s 2,932.

Between 6pm Wednesday and 6pm Thursday, 191 more recoveries were also confirmed, which means that a total of 71,758 recoveries have been observed nationwide so far.

Hospital admissions remain unchanged from the previous day, at 22.

Not long after Maldives was able to control a spike in cases into the beginning of the year, the Covid-19 caseload began spiking in the beginning of May once again. This came not long after authorities lifted the measures in place before a fourth wave was confirmed, in time for the fasting month of Ramadan 1442 as well as the Local Council and Women’s Development Committee elections held in mid-April.

Measures were strengthened across the Maldives earlier in May with authorities having imposed a curfew in the capital region initially from 4pm to 4am. On May 26, the curfew hours were extended from 4pm to 8am and authorities also imposed movement restrictions for capital region residents outside the curfew hours. Following a decline in cases, public health authorities reduced curfew hours in the capital thrice round during June.

Effective July 8, the curfew has been lifted and a number of other eases have also been introduced by the government, including allowing fully vaccinated individuals to travel to islands not under monitoring without the need to quarantine, if they present negative PCR certification. All businesses have also been allowed to resume at their full capacity, with authorities even allowing restaurants and cafés to provide dine-in services until 11:30pm.

Maldives remains in a state of public health emergency since 12 March 2020 which was last extended to expire on 2 August.