"About seven" out of 23 vulnerable houses cleared: Dr. Afzal

About seven out of the 23 vulnerable houses identified through community surveillance, have been cleared.

Dr. Ibrahim Afzal stated this during the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC)’s daily Covid-19 press conference, on Sunday night.

Responding to a reporter’s question on whether there could be another sudden peak in cases, the doctor said that this is highly possible.

Noting that only seven of the 23 high-risk or vulnerable houses under active surveillance have been cleared or “fully investigated”, Dr. Afzal stressed that the investigations into the remaining areas could lead to additional cases and more clusters.

Further, he said that there are plans to conduct surveillance on local populations in the capital and added that there is a chance that more positive cases are confirmed through this as well.

Dr. Afzal noted that despite new cases being low the past three days, that there could be “a sudden increase in cases”.

Authorities had previously revealed that 23 vulnerable houses identified through a community survey are being monitored, adding that there are over a thousand migrant workers living in these places. 95 people have tested positive for Covid-19 in one such location, as well as 74 from another vulnerable house.

According to authorities, 113 Covid-19 vulnerable migrant workers were moved to the Gulhifalhu isolation facility on Saturday and work is underway to move more within the next few weeks.

On Saturday, the director general of public health had issued an order for vulnerable migrants to be moved to quarantine facilities.