113 new cases push Maldives Covid-19 case total to 80,791

Maldives reported 113 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, pushing the country's total to 80,791.

According to the latest statistics publicized by Health Protection Agency (HPA), out of the 5,189 samples tested during the reporting period, 60 tested positive from outlying atolls while 42 cases are from the Greater Male’ Area and 11 from operational resorts. 

While this pushes the country's coronavirus case total to 80,791, the additional 137 recoveries reported on Sunday brings total recoveries to 78,894.

With this, as well as the 226 deaths reported from Covid-19, there are currently 1,658 active coronavirus cases across the island nation.

Hospital admissions increased by five from the previous day, to 16.

Maldives' first coronavirus cases were reported from a resort on 7 March 2020. While things seemed to be under control for over a month given Maldives' scattered geography, a community transmission was detected on 15 April 2020; an individual who consulted at a flu clinic had tested positive for the virus in the congested capital Male' City.

While a state of public health emergency was declared a few days prior on 12 March 2020, the city went into a full lockdown almost immediately as a measure to curb the spread of the virus. While some measures were eased by mid-July, cases began spiking towards the end of August 2020 and measures were strengthened once again with a curfew introduced in the capital.

Further, as cases were detected from outlying islands, non-essential travel between islands was banned with islands where cases were being reported from were placed under Covid-19 monitoring.

Cases began declining towards the end of 2020, however, an increase was seen at the start of 2021. The final, and most infectious wave was confirmed back in May. While this led to an unofficial lockdown of Male', the restrictions were eased in time for the long government holiday from mid to end of July, especially for those that have completed both doses of Covid-19 vaccine. Fully vaccinated individuals are now allowed to travel within the country without the need to quarantine, after presenting a negative PCR test result. However, this is only for islands that do not have any monitoring measures in place.

As a precautionary measure against Covid-19, Maldives went into lockdown and closed its borders in March 2020, due to which only 13 arrivals were recorded in April that year. The borders remained closed for nearly four months, until mid-July. Back in May this year, authorities halted issuing visas for travelers from South Asia following the worsening Covid-19 situation in the region. While this led to a decrease in arrivals in the following months, things have since picked up since this was lifted with a new record set this ongoing month where 120,529 tourist arrivals have already been recorded.

The state of public health emergency announced in March 2020, has been extended a 17th time, to expire on September 1.