Maldives reported 21 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday.

Nightly statistics publicized by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) revealed that out of the 2,715 samples tested between 6pm Wednesday and 6pm Thursday, 21 samples tested positive for the infection.

This has pushed the country’s Covid-19 tally to 13,988.

17 out of the 21 new infections were detected in the Greater Malé Region, whereas two were discovered in residential islands and two from operational resorts.

With 13 additional recoveries reported by sundown on Thursday, the country has observed a total of 13,238 patients having recovered from the virus.

Out of the 694 active coronavirus infections in the country presently, 44 patients remain hospitalized for treatment, this is four more than the previous day.

Public health authorities have collected a total of 333,836 samples for coronavirus testing, since the pandemic surfaced in the island nation from a resort, on March 7. The first cases prompted a nationwide state of public health emergency, just a few days later.

Not long after on April 15, authorities reported the first case of community transmission in the capital region, resulting in a full lockdown being imposed across the Greater Malé Region and a partial lockdown across islands, with travel to and from the capital having been banned.

Proven to be effective, the lockdown was lifted in phases in late May and by the time authorities entered the third phase of lockdown easing, cases began spiraling once more.

This prompted additional measures, however, authorities avoided introducing a second lockdown.

The pandemic has claimed 49 lives in the island nation thus far. Early Thursday, a 60-year-old Maldivian being treated at the 11th floor of Dharumavantha Hospital passed away due to complications, making it the 49th death from Covid-19.