Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has urged all “to do what we can to keep infection numbers low” so as to not overwhelm the country’s healthcare system.

While the nine people have tested positive for Covid-19 in the capital, authorities revealed that these are three separate clusters. Further, the Covid-19 taskforce’s projection shows that over 97,000 people will be infected, even with current preventive measures.

With the discovery of the first case in the city, a 24-hour lockdown was announced and this was extended by 14 days on Friday.

In a tweet posted late Friday night, Minister Shahid said “lockdown is neither easy nor convenient” but that “numbers are increasing”.

Further noting that the number of infected persons “may overwhelm [the] health system” with the current increase rate, the minister called on all to “do what we can to keep infection numbers low”

He added that this can be done

With the nine confirmed cases from Malé City, the total number of cases in the country has risen to 29. 16 people have recovered while the remaining patients are in “stable condition”, there have been deaths thus far.