The National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) has revealed that a total of 171 individuals have been placed in temporary shelters amid the Covid-19 lockdown thus far.

This was revealed during a routinely press briefing held on Friday night, where Covid-19 spokesperson Mohamed Mabrook Aziz stated that the work is being carried out by the Ministry of Gender, Family and Social Services, the Social Council in cooperation with several NGOs and international organizations.

Under this operation, homeless individuals are being rescued and provided food as well.

There are 93 homeless individuals currently under the care of the ministry and council and 238 individuals had sought help from authorities in the provision of food, through phone calls.

The Greater Malé Region was locked down on April 15 following the discovery of the first community transmission and since then, the ministry revealed that they received the most number of cases related to shelter. As such, they received over 40 cases linked to housing, according to statistics publicized earlier.

Officers of the Maldives Police Service (MPS) began these rescue efforts on the day of the lockdown, in cooperation with the ministry and the Maldives Red Crescent.

This comes at a time Maldives observed the first day of Ramadan 1441 on April 24, and two local NGOs, the Maldives Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators (MATATO) and the National Boating Association of Maldives (NBAM) had taken the initiative to provide meals for those under state care.