78 medical students join workforce

A number of Maldivian medical students that returned from abroad have joined the workforce in combatting the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19).

Speaking at Tuesday night’s press briefing, the Covid-19 task force National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC)’s spokesperson, Mohamed Mabrook Aziz revealed that a number of medical students that were evacuated from foreign countries were quarantined upon arrival, and 78 of them have completed their quarantine period and been dispatched to join the medical workforce.

Most of these students have joined the medical teams in Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) and NEOC’s medical cluster team and are receiving the required training.

Earlier this week, the Maldivian medical students in Nepal and Bangladesh were also brought back to the country and 46 have been quarantined.

Mabrook revealed that they will also join the work force after completing their quarantine period.

Earlier, the task force had stressed that the country will face a shortage of healthcare workers if the Covid-19 situation continues to worsen and authorities are unable to control it. Mabrook stressed that the number of doctors and nurses in the country will be insufficient if the curve is not flattened and that currently, there are two doctors and seven nurses for every group of 1,000 Covid-19 patients in the Maldives.

A 10-member medical team had also arrived in the Maldives, earlier this week.