The National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) has revealed that the number of officers of the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF) that have contracted the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic thus far has risen to 20.

This was revealed by Dr. Ibrahim Afzal during a routinely press briefing on Wednesday night, where he stated that most of the Covid-19 cases discovered on Wednesday were officers among the “MNDF Cluster”.

This includes four officers that turned positive from Kalhuthukkala Koshi, two from Covid Village and 14 officers from the MNDF Electrical Mechanical Engineering Workshop.

While contact tracing will be carried out extensively, the doctor did not reveal specific numbers of those who have been traced yet.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) revealed that an MNDF officer turned positive to the disease on April 21, and that 41 individuals were identified as contacts of the patient.

Speaking to press earlier, Colonel Hussain Ali revealed that officers were aware of the risk they were exposing themselves to when joining the frontlines of battling the disease and that they are fully prepared in case situation calls for more officers to be quarantined.

Over 600 officers have been isolated away from their families and 130 officers have been quarantined to date.

The officers that are taken into quarantine facilities will rejoin the forces after completing the 14-day period and a force protection plan is ready alongside SOPs and standards.