With the highest number of daily Covid-19 cases reported in days, Maldives Covid-19 tally has surpassed 8,000.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) on Tuesday revealed that 199 new infections were reported out of which 168 were in the Greater Malé Region and the remaining 31 were in outlying islands.

The new cases confirmed by 6pm Tuesday include 145 Maldivians, 42 Bangladeshi nationals, five Indian nationals, three nationals from Sri Lanka, two Americans and one each from China and Japan.

With this development, the country’s total number has reached 8,003.

Further, authorities reported 110 recoveries from the virus on Tuesday, pushing the total number of recovered patients to 5,265.

The new strand of coronavirus has taken 29 lives in the Maldives thus far, and deaths are being reported more frequently of recent. As such, a 79-year-old and 73-year-old succumbed to the infection last week, followed by the 29th death which was reported late Monday when a 79-year-old local died from the virus.

There are currently 2,703 active cases of the virus out of which 1,395 are receiving treatment at isolation facilities while 162 are hospitalized for treatment.

Further, authorities report that Covid-19 cases have been confirmed from 41 residential islands and 16 resorts thus far with the inclusion of 16 tourists and 29 staff members.

Due to a drastic surge in daily cases being reported since entering the third phase of lockdown easing in July, authorities were forced to introduce movement restrictions including a seven-hour curfew effective from 10pm to 5am and banning of vehicle movement from 8pm to 5am.

Despite the authorities being resolute on avoiding a second lockdown, health officials have stressed that they may need to introduce a second lockdown in light of the worsening situation.