The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has stopped their operation where frontline workers collected random samples from the Greater Malé Region.

Earlier this week, HPA began dispatching a team, clad with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to collect random samples from the region. However, the Covid-19 task force’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG) team’s Dr. Ali Latheef revealed that there is no purpose of collecting random samples as long as there is no way to increase the testing capacity in the country.

This was revealed during an emergency press briefing held early Thursday, where Health Minister Abdulla Ameen was in attendance.

Dr. Latheef revealed that the random sample collection was carried out to identify how much the community transmission has spread and that, either way, there will be a delay in receiving test results.

The Ministry of Health is currently working to organize arrangement for Covid-19 testing to be carried out in outlying atolls.

Currently, a total of 400 tests may be carried out on a daily basis and the government has assured that more work is being done to increase testing capacity.