The World Health Organization (WHO)'s quality assurance panel has given a perfect score for Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) laboratory’s Covid-19 testing.

In a publication on Thursday, the hospital revealed that they have tested and sent correct results for the unknown samples sent from WHO’s External Quality Assurance Program for testing for Covid-19, hailing a score of 100 percent.

This, the hospital said further validates the testing process internationally.

When the pandemic surfaced in Wuhan City of China during December 2019, the Maldives did not have the testing equipment and capacity. However, the country began Covid-19 testing during February 2020 for the first time at the IGMH laboratory.

The lab currently conducts tests for Covid-19, on a round-the-clock basis and testing has now been made available at the Maldives Police Service (MPS) forensic laboratory, ADK Hospital and southernmost Addu City as well.

Authorities have given assurance that they will boost the country’s testing capacity across other regions in the near future.

As of Thursday, the country has collected 46,182 samples out of which 2,277 have tested positive so far.

Out of the total, Maldives has seen 1,848 recoveries from the virus and eight Covid-19 related deaths.