Coronavirus: two more being monitored after traveling to China, "no symptoms"

Two additional individuals are being monitored, over the possibility of carrying the deadly coronavirus infection.

Tourism Minister Ali Waheed, the government’s official spokesperson for all things coronavirus related, revealed this at a press conference held on Thursday morning.

At the press conference, Waheed revealed that two additional individuals are being kept in isolation at the quarantine area set up in Farukolhufushi island for monitoring purposes.

However, the minister stressed that neither of the individuals have any of the symptoms but that they have been isolated “as they had traveled to China,” where the coronavirus disease was first reported in December 2019.

Waheed added that they have been quarantined based on the travel advisory issued on February 3.

While the Maldives is yet to discover a coronavirus case, seven individuals were tested for the lethal disease following symptoms.

However, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) said that all seven had tested negative to the disease.

The Novel Coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China in December 2019, and there has been public concern over the possible outbreak in the Maldives due to tourist arrivals from the southeastern nation. Over 260,000 tourists arrived from China in 2019.

There have been over 28,300 confirmed coronavirus cases thus far, with 4565 deaths reported; a total of 1,294 have recovered.

While Maldives has temporarily halted all direct flights to China, the government gifted one million tuna cans to the southeast Asian nation as a goodwill gesture and to assist the country during this difficult time.