The National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) has revealed that Maldives current testing capacity will rise to about 600 once the new testing machine is brought to the Maldives.

This was revealed by the task force’s spokesperson, Mohamed Mabrook Aziz during a press briefing on Saturday night.

As such, he revealed that the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing machine will be brought to the Maldives on May 17 and that this will increase the country’s testing capacity between 600 – 650 tests on a daily basis.

This is an increase of 200 – 250 tests compared to the current capacity.

Maldives currently has the capacity to conduct 300 – 400 Covid-19 tests on a daily basis and tests are carried out at the National Reference Laboratory at Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) and the Forensic Laboratory at Maldives Police Service (MPS).

IGMH earlier revealed that a total of 16 laboratory technicians have been trained for Covid-19 testing.

While inadequate testing capacity is one of the biggest challenges facing the country’s response efforts to Covid-19, the government is working tirelessly to increase the country’s Covid-19 testing capacity. In light of this, Mabrook earlier revealed that they are working to bring 200 additional machines for testing, by May 17.

The government’s work to bring in more machines is also hindered due to the several precautionary measures taken by the governments of foreign countries, including movement restriction and lockdowns. Despite these challenges, the President’s Office, Health Ministry and State Trading Organization (STO) are working to bring in adequate supplies and equipment needed by frontline workers. On April 26, STO revealed that they are working to bring in another PCR testing machine.