After months, Maldives has confirmed the lowest rise in Covid-19 cases from the populous capital region, on Friday.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA), through its latest daily figures, revealed that 46 new coronavirus infections and 25 recoveries were reported between 6pm Thursday and 6pm Friday.

These were out of 3,121 samples tested in the reporting period. Of the 46 new cases, 35 were from residential islands outside the congested capital of the Maldives, Malé City where seven new infections were detected. This is the lowest daily cases to have been reported from the Greater Malé Region, in months. The remaining four cases were from operational resorts.

With the lowest number of recoveries reported in days as well, the total number of recoveries currently stands at 83,809.

The country’s active coronavirus case count has risen to 1,339 from the previous day’s 1,319 with the total Covid-19 case tally increasing to 85,394.

Hospital admissions remain unchanged from the previous day, at 15.

Maldives reported its first Covid-19 fatality in April 2020. Since then, the death toll has been pushed to 234. The latest fatality was confirmed on Saturday morning when a 72-year-old Maldivian woman being treated at Hulhumalé Medical Facility succumbed to complications of the virus.

The geographical advantage of being comprised of a scatter of islands initially enabled Maldives to keep tabs on the spread of coronavirus when the first few cases surfaced. Things spiraled out of control after a community transmission was detected in the congested capital on 15 April 2020 to which authorities responded by imposing an immediate lockdown.

Months later, authorities began easing the lockdown in phases, with cases going on a downward spiral. Things seemed to be in control until the new year rolled around and cases began spiraling once more. Since April 2020, authorities have been repeating a cycle of curfews, lockdowns, partial lockdowns and other restrictive measures in their successful efforts to curb the spread of the virus.

Maldives was faced by a fourth and more infectious coronavirus wave in early May, with cases rising to alarming levels at 1,000 on a daily basis. With the implementation of stricter measures, cases began declining once again, and authorities introduced further eases to restrictions in early July for the extensive government holidays.

Eases have been doubling with those that have completed both doses of Covid-19 vaccine allowed to travel domestically without the need to quarantine, with a negative PCR test result. HPA continues to practice caution as the pandemic is far from being controlled, despite declining numbers in recent months. For over a month, the country has been free from further restrictions in the face of the pandemic, however, the authorities continue to remind the public to be vigilant as the country heads down the road to full recovery from the impacts of Covid-19. Although life is far from reaching normal yet, the government's resilience to vaccinate the entire nation has revived hopes of eases from further burden, in the new normal.

The country has been in a state of public health emergency for over a year, since 12 March 2020. It was extended a 19th time to expire on October 31.