Maldives Covid-19 total reaches 13,583
In addition to 18 locals, Friday's confirmed cases include Russian, French, Sri Lankan, Nepalese and Bangladeshi nationals
Healthcare workers prepare to collect samples for Covid-19 testing
Maldives reported 25 new coronavirus infections on Friday, pushing the country’s total case count to 13,583.
While the cases were confirmed from over 2,100 samples tested within 24 hours, 21 are from the greater Male’ area while the remaining are from inhabited islands.
They include 18 locals, two individuals each from Russia and France as well as one each from Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.
While this pushes the Covid-19 tally to 13,583, with the 15 new recoveries reported on Friday, Maldives has seen a total of 13,026 recoveries thus far. The recovery rate is 95.90 percent. There have been 48 deaths, with a mortality rate of 0.35 percent.
There are 502 active coronavirus cases in the island nation currently, with most still in the greater Male’ area. As such, 360 of the active cases are in the region while 36 are in inhabited islands, 78 in tourist establishments, 25 in islands under development as well as three active cases in industrial islands as well.
36 patients are receiving treatment at hospitals, one less than the previous day.
Out of the total coronavirus infections confirmed in the archipelago nation since March, 62.93 percent are locals.
While Maldives' first Covid-19 cases were confirmed from resorts in March, a community transmission was detected on April 15. This led to a complete lockdown in the capital, as well as a partial lockdown across the country with travel between islands banned. Lockdown easing began in late-May.
Authorities have been gradually lifting Covid-19 safety restrictions following the decline in daily cases since September, especially in the capital. As such, while locals and work visa holders that return to the country are not required to quarantine from December 20, if traveling to the capital, those traveling to other areas still have to undergo a 10-day quarantine period. Further, the curfew in effect in the capital since August was lifted last week as well.
While a new strain of the pandemic has been reported from various other nations, the government is in discussions regarding the measures to be implemented over fears of its reaching the country where tourism has been flourishing since the start of December.
