Maldives reports over 200 new Covid-19 cases incl. 92 from a single island

Maldives reported over 200 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, for the first time since June.

While the Health Protection Agency (HPA) reported that Thursday’s 217 new cases were confirmed from over 5,700 samples tested within 24 hours, 92 of the cases are from Rah Faru Huraa, an island under development.

Further, 88 cases are from residential islands while 31 are from the Greater Male’ Region and six are from operational resorts.

Thursday’s numbers pushes the country’s Covid-19 total to 75,622 and with the 155 recoveries, 72,833 patients have recovered from the virus.

The island nation reported the highest number of deaths in a single month since the pandemic began, in May 2021, when a total of 88 deaths were confirmed. 50 deaths were reported in June.

Out of the 2,562 active cases, 14 patients are receiving treatment at hospitals or treatment facilities; two less than the previous day.

While the government began easing Covid-19 restrictions last year following a decline in cases, the spike of over 1,000 daily cases seen from April was confirmed as a "fourth wave" and forced authorities to strengthen the restrictions especially in the capital.

These measures have been eased thrice since as the country’s Covid-19 situation continued to improve, including lifting of the curfew in the capital.

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