179 new cases push Maldives Covid-19 case total to 81,653

The number of Covid-19-19 cases continues to rise in Maldives, with another 179 persons testing positive on Friday, taking the overall case tally to 81,653.

The 179 new cases were from the 5,120 samples tested within 24 hours, out of which 120 are from outlying islands, 42 from the capital Male’ while the remaining 17 are from resorts in operation.

While this pushed the country's coronavirus total to 81,653, active case-load increased to 1,966.

Further, while 108 additional recoveries were reported on Friday, a total of 79,448 patients have recovered from the virus. The country has confirmed 226 deaths, with four reported last week.

There are currently 25 patients receiving treatment at hospitals, one more than the previous day.

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 nationwide 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 last year, 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.

The eases to traveling between islands has led to an increase in cases reported from outlying atolls. Restrictions announced for unvaccinated individuals will come into effect in September, including on domestic air travel.

As a precautionary measure against Covid-19, Maldives went into lockdown and closed its borders in March 2020. 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 record 143,599 arrivals recorded in August; out of this, 54,094 arrivals were from neighboring India.

The state of public health emergency announced in March 2020, was extended an eighteenth time on Wednesday, to expire on October 1.