It will take about two more weeks for the lockdown declared across the Greater Malé Region to prove effective, says Medical Officer at the Health Protection Agency (HPA), Dr. Nazla Rafeeq.

This was revealed during Thursday night’s press briefing at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC).

As such, the doctor revealed that the positive cases that are currently surfacing these days are from the patients who contracted the virus about one or two weeks back.

In this regard, Dr. Nazla stated that they will only be able to observe the results of the lockdown that was declared after the first case of community transmission emerged, after about two weeks.

However, if the residents of the region fail to abide by the regulations and instructions given by relevant authorities and continue to violate the measures implemented, there is a chance for the positive cases to spiral even more.

The doctor revealed that the only thing to do to slow the spread of the disease is to identify positive cases as soon as possible. In this regard, symptomatic individuals have been urged to refrain from keeping the information from the authorities and contact 1676 as soon as they begin exhibiting symptoms.

Further, she stressed on the importance of social and physical distance as it is the only way to be safe from the virus now, as well as maintaining hygienic measures and the use of hand sanitizer.

If individuals develop symptoms, they have been urged to go into self-isolation as soon as possible so as to ensure they do not contact their loved ones.

There is no other way to curb the spread of the virus, other than following these instructions, said the doctor, who stressed that the relevant authorities are yet to create a vaccine for this fatal infection.

Maldives crossed over 100 cases on Thursday and the numbers have been spiraling since the discovery of the community transmission on 15 April.