Covid-19: Maldives reports 133 new cases, additional death

Maldives reported 133 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, raising the total infections in the country since the outbreak of the pandemic to 6,912.

121 of the cases are from the greater Malé region while 12 are from outlying islands. The 133 cases were confirmed from the 977 samples tested within 24 hours.

The new cases include 103 locals, 15 Bangladeshis, eight Indian nationals, two each from United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and Sri Lanka as well as one Nepalese national.

Also, an additional coronavirus-related death has been reported, bringing the death toll to 28; a 73-year-old local man passed away early morning on Tuesday while receiving treatment at the Hulhumalé Medical Facility. This is the second death from Covid-19 recorded this week, there were four last week.

Further, 75 recoveries were reported on Monday bringing total recoveries to 4,297.

There are 2,588 active Covid-19 cases in the island nation.

With nine additional patients admitted at hospitals, a total of 171 patients are receiving treatment at hospitals and 1,458 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 is over 60 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. They also stressed that healthcare workers “are exhausted”.

While the country’s 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, which led to a spike in cases by the time the country entered the third phase, prompting authorities to strengthen Covid-19 safety measures in the capital, 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.

The Health Protection Agency (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.