Covid-19: Hoandehdhoo island placed under monitoring

Hoandehdhoo island in Gaafu Dhaalu atoll has been placed under monitoring following confirmation of Covid-19 cases.

Monitoring measures are placed by the director general of public health, as health authorities conduct the required work to ensure that is no community spread including contact tracing.

While the island council has been informed of this, travel to and from the island is not allowed without the Health Protection Agency (HPA)’s approval.

HPA also urged all to cooperate in the efforts to contain the virus that continues to spread rapidly throughout the globe since early 2020.

Hoandehdhoo Hospital’s manager, Ahmed Shifau said that four people had initially tested positive for Covid-19 from the island.

While these four were under home quarantine as mandated after traveling from the capital, Shifau said that they made the decision to conduct random sampling after this.

He said that two out of the three individuals tested are positive to Covid-19.

While Maldives has confirmed 8,281 Covid-19 cases since March, majority were detected in the capital region. Cases detected from islands have been increasing since July, following the eases to movement restriction measures.

There are active Covid-19 cases in at least 39 residential islands currently, however, most of the cases are individuals under home quarantine orders under Covid-19 safety guidelines.

Those violating quarantine orders are now being fined up to MVR 5,000.