"Whether there will be 19,000 Covid-19 cases or 29, it is entirely up to the people"

Dr. Nazla Rafeeq has said that it is up to the people, to control the spread of coronavirus in the country.

The doctor said this at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC)’s daily press briefing, after weeks of appealing to the people to practice physical distancing to ensure there is no community transmission.

However, the virus has reached the country’s congested capital, with a woman with no travel history testing positive on Wednesday, nine cases and three separate clusters have been confirmed from the city since.

While the entire city is on a lockdown, current projections show at least 19,468 confirmed cases by the 14th day, however, it reduces drastically to 23 with 75 percent compliance to preventive measures.

She further urged people living in the same apartment to practice physical distancing while home as well, emphasizing that this is to reduce the chance of transmission.

Expressing disappointment that people continued to meet up despite appeals to stay at home, Dr. Nazla urged people in the outlying atolls to stay at home as well even though there is no official order to do so.

Dr. Nazla previously noted that there will be a new normal until a vaccination is found, and said that behavioural changes are required to adapt to this.

Spokesperson of the government’s Covid-19 taskforce, Mohamed Mabrook Aziz also previously said that the reason that the country is in this situation is because people failed to listen to authorities’ appeals. Noting that people continued to meet up and have parties and go on picnics and fishing trips, Mabrook said that there are 207 contacts of a single patient.

Physical distancing is the only known way to slow the spread of Covid-19, and has been proven successful in other nations such as the United States and Italy.