NEOC shares Covid-19 preparedness work amid plans to ease movement restriction measures

Authorities shared Covid-19 preparedness measures as they work to ease movement restriction measures.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Wednesday announced plans to ease the capital’s lockdown as well as other movement restrictions, adding that this will be done after ensuring that testing capacity is increased, as well as after determining that the country has enough healthcare resources and medical equipment in order to treat patients.

National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC)’s spokesperson Mohamed Mabrook Aziz shared details of the work being done to ensure this, at Thursday night’s press briefing.

As such, he said that 10 ventilators recently arrived in the country via Dubai and added that this increases the number of ventilators in the country to 129. Over 4,000 oxygen cylinders have also arrived, as well as beds required for isolation and quarantine facilities established across the country.

Mabrook also revealed that over 1,200 tests can be carried out per day with the installment of the new extraction machine at Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH); the hospital will be able to conduct 600 tests, while ADK Hospital who recently started testing can do 500 and 145 tests being carried out at the police forensic lab.

Further, two additional BioFire PCR testing machines are to arrive in Maldives next week. The spokesperson said these are currently at transit in India, and added that one will be installed at IGMH while the other will be installed at the main Covid-19 treatment facility, Tree Top Hospital.

While there have been concerns over the lack of resources and treatment facilities in the outlying atolls, the NEOC spokesperson also shared the latest on this work.

Covid-19 treatment centers are being established in seven areas, with Mabrook saying that construction has completed in the ones at Addu and Fuvahmulah cities as well as Gan (Laamu) and Ihavandhoo (Haa Alif) islands. 98 percent of the work at the Gaafu Alifu center has completed while the work at Eydhafushi (Baa) and Funadhoo (Shaviyani) are between 83 to 88 percent.

All the biomedical equipment and beds are to be delivered to these facilities “by the end of May”.

Noting that all health centers across the country currently has enough personal protective gear in stock, he said that the health ministry is working to acquire more and that these will also be distributed accordingly.

While a 300-bed medical facility is being developed in the capital’s suburban district Hulhumale, Mabrook said that the only work left there is the installment of a lift adding that the work was delayed due to current weather conditions.