The National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC)’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG) has revealed that it will take atleast three months to overcome the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis in the Maldives.

Responding to a reporter’s question during Tuesday night’s press briefing, Dr. Ibrahim Afzal revealed that the lockdown has proven to be “effective” and that most people are obediently staying home in accordance with the authorities’ orders.

Due to the lockdown, the number of direct contacts of positive patients have also reduced and it is notable that the lockdown ensures that the chances of the disease spreading from person-to-person, is slim.

Dr. Afzal further stated that although the spread of the disease is shrinking, the measures required to treat patients and effectively contain the disease will last about three months.

He added that a low peak is possible, depending on the measures taken. As such, additional measures need to be maintained for at least three months.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) declared a lockdown across the Greater Malé Region following the discovery of the first community transmission on 15 April. The lockdown is in effect until 30 April.

Since the first case discovered in the capital had no travel history, the alert level of Malé City has been changed to “Red” which means that there has been “confirmed human-to-human transmission with no direct link to imported case”.