Pres. calls for calm amid confirmation of coronavirus cases

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has called for the public not to panic and follow instructions, following the two confirmed coronavirus cases.

The president said this during an emergency meeting held with national stakeholders late Saturday night, following the confirmation of Covid-19 cases.

Cabinet ministers, senior officials of the President’s Office, government agencies and health officials took part in the meeting, where discussions focused on “the new measures enacted across the country”.

The country’s health risk level has been changed to “Yellow” while Kuredu Island Resort -where the Covid-19 patients were discovered- is at “Orange”; the resort has been placed under temporary quarantine as authorities continue to monitor individuals that had contact with the patients.

Yellow Level entails “screening people exiting islands, increased surveillance, isolation of cases and quarantining of close contacts, home isolation, public awareness, and providing psycho-social support to individuals and families”.

Speaking at the meeting on Saturday, President Solih “urged all relevant stakeholders to be vigilant in ensuring the safety of the public, and foreign nationals both residing and visiting the Maldives”, and urged authorities to maintain a high level of engagement in keeping the public informed of all developments related to COVID-19.

At the cabinet meeting held after the confirmation of the two positive cases, the president instructed to promptly share the news with public given the government’s precedence to “sharing accurate and timely information”.

He also instructed to strengthen the preventive and safeguard measures to be placed “upon possible future scenarios in case of an outbreak”.