Authorities had accidentally placed a wrong child under quarantine from Thakandhoo island in Haa Alif atoll, due to an error in how their name was spelt.

Covid-19 taskforce’s spokesperson Mohamed Mabrook Aziz admitted to this at Saturday night’s press conference, and apologized for the error.

He said that a child from an island in the north had mistakenly been placed under quarantine due to an error in their name, during the work being done to transfer Covid-19 positive patients to quarantine facilities.

Mabrook added that officials of the Health Protection Agency (HPA) have since spoken to the child’s family and that the required measures have been taken.

Noting that a Covid-19 positive individual and their child were to be placed under quarantine, he said that the child that was mistaken is from the same family as a child that has tested positive “but resides in different houses”.

However, the spokesperson highlighted that the child that was accidentally placed under quarantine is a “close contact” of a confirmed case and hence, “has to be tested as well”.

Three people have tested positive to Covid-19 from Thakandhoo island.