Maldives has once again reported over 100 new daily cases of the Covid-19 infection.

While 96 cases were reported on Saturday, the country on Sunday announced 119 new Covid-19 cases; these include 100 locals, 11 Bangladeshis, three Indians, two each from Philippines and United Arab Emirates as well as one Sri Lankan national.

This is from the 972 samples tested within 24 hours, and pushes the country’s total case count to 6,779.

With the 109 additional recoveries reported on Sunday, a total of 4,222 patients have recovered from the infection.

While the island nation currently has 2,531 active coronavirus cases, there have been 26 deaths including four last week.

162 patients are admitted at hospitals and 1,457 have been moved to isolation facilities for further monitoring.

With the start of the third phase of lockdown easing on July 1, there was a surge in Covid-19 infections with over 100 new cases reported almost daily since. Nearly 1,000 cases were detected within the past week, and the bed occupancy rate in the capital region has risen to 62 percent.

Health experts have from the beginning expressed worry that the country’s health care system could be overloaded with a sudden spike in cases.

Consultant at the Health Protection Agency (HPA), Dr. Sheena Moosa on Sunday said that it is time the country returned to a state of lockdown. She said that the current surge we are seeing was not predicted, and expressed doubt that the virus can be controlled with the current preventive measures.

While Maldives’ first Covid-19 cases were detected from resorts in March, a community spread was confirmed on April 15 and a lockdown was announced in the capital region as well as a partial lockdown across country with travel between islands banned.

Lockdown easing began on May 29, and following the spike in cases in the third phase, authorities began strengthening Covid-19 safety measures in the greater Malé this month.

As such, face masks were made compulsory in public from August 1 while a curfew was reintroduced a few days later. Further, from this Sunday, vehicle movement is restricted from 8pm to 5am.

HPA said that the latest measure is to restrict the movement and social activities of youth, noting that most of the confirmed Covid-19 cases are within this age group.