Despite a number of Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) officers testing positive for coronavirus, Minister Mariya Didi has assured that there are still enough officers in the army to ensure the safety of the people.

The defence minister made the statement during a virtual interview on RaajjeTV’s Covid-19 coverage on Wednesday night.

Noting that there are various rumours about MNDF officers including the number that has tested positive for the virus as well those placed under isolation, Mariya said that they had opted to not disclose these details “for security reasons” and that “there is no effort to hide information from the public” in this regard.

The minister however stressed that there “are enough officers to ensure the safety of the people”.

As such, she said that there are currently at least 1,398 officers on duty at various regions of the country and added that all army personnel “are on alert”.

She added that the officers in the capital area have been stationed at the MNDF headquarters since the Covid-19 lockdown was announced on April 15.

Chief of Defence Force, Major General Abdulla Shamaal had on Tuesday announced that over 40 army officers have tested positive for Covid-19. NEOC has said that they do not belong to the same cluster and that contact tracing is underway.

Further, the center revealed that 137 frontline workers have tested positive for the virus including security officials on Wednesday night.