Covid-19: Maldives reports an increase in cases from outlying atolls

With an increase in coronavirus infections from residential islands, Maldives reported 169 new cases on Tuesday.

The new cases are from 4,932 samples tested within 24 hours. More than half of the cases, 127 are from residential islands while 24 are from the Greater Male' Area, 15 from resorts and three cases are from liveaboard vessels.

While the coronavirus situation in outlying atolls had been under control for the majority of the pandemic, cases reported from islands increased during the fourth wave seen in April. Things have calmed down since, and fully vaccinated people are now able to travel between islands without having to quarantine after presenting a negative PCR test result.

The 169 new cases push the country's Covid-19 case count to 76,188, with active cases rising to 2,619. With an additional 19 recoveries reported on Tuesday, a total of 73,340 patients have recovered since the country confirmed its first coronavirus case in March 2020.

There have been a total of 217 deaths from Covid-19.

Out of the 2,619 active cases, eight patients are hospitalized for treatment; six 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.

Other eases effective from July 8 include reducing quarantine period of inbound travelers as well as allowing fully vaccinated individuals to travel to islands without the need to quarantine; however, they are only allowed to go to islands that are not under Covid-19 monitoring; there are currently 14 inhabited islands with monitoring measures in place.

Further, travelers from South Asia are now allowed back into the country from July 15, after about a two month ban following the worsening coronavirus situation in the region. While they are only allowed to stay in resorts and transit in guesthouses designated by the tourism ministry for now, there have already been cases of facilities violating the guidelines for accommodating tourists from the region.

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