Maldives reports lowest daily rise in local Covid-19 cases, in weeks

Maldives reported the lowest number of local infections of the global Covid-19 pandemic, on Sunday.

Nightly statistics publicized by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) reveal that 75 new infections were confirmed by 6pm Sunday, out of which a majority is foreigners; 53 while just 22 local cases were reported. This is the first time the country has reported a decrease in daily local cases, in weeks.

Out of the new cases, 72 were detected in the greater Malé region and three from residential islands.

This has pushed the country’s Covid-19 case count to 9,724.

Further, Maldives confirmed 73 recoveries from the virus on Sunday, which means that the total number of coronavirus-stricken patients who have recovered from the infection has risen to 8,261.

While there were 111 patients hospitalized for treatment on Saturday, the number dropped to 107 on Sunday and the number of isolated patients rose from 650 to 686.

Maldives currently has 1,424 active cases of the pandemic, which has taken 33 lives in the island nation.

Further, HPA also revealed that there are active cases in 24 residential islands and 26 resorts with the inclusion of 15 tourists and 39 resort workers.

Monitoring measures are still in place in Madaveli and Hoandedhdhoo islands of Gaaf Dhaal atoll, the latter currently has 19 active cases.

Authorities responded to the first case of community spread detected in the capital region by introducing an immediate lockdown, on April 15. The lockdown lasted for nearly four months and days after public health officials expressed that the lockdown was proven effective, authorities entered a lockdown ease plan on May 29. Cases began soaring after the authorities entered the third phase of lockdown easing in July and the virus spread nationwide within a short period of time. Since then, the number of local cases being confirmed has been significantly higher than the number of foreigners contracting the virus.