The nationwide state of public health emergency announced across the Maldives has been extended for the 11th time.

As per an announcement on the government gazette, the state of public health emergency has been extended until the 5th of March, as the previous one expired on Wednesday.

While the state of emergency was declared across the country due to the risk of wide-spread escalation of the pandemic, on 12th March 2020, the announcement said that this has been extended by an additional month as the threats still remain.

The government had no choice but to extend the state of public health emergency as the Covid-19 situation in the Maldives worsens. The last few days saw authorities strengthen coronavirus safety measures, following the spike in cases detected, especially in the epicenter Male’ region.

Most of these rules are to take effect from Wednesday, including a two-hour extension to the night-time curfew announced in the capital on January 24 as well as a vehicle movement restriction between 8:30pm and 4:30am in the city.

The measures are being reinforced as they are to have yielded positive results in controlling the virus before. While both measures mentioned were implemented last year, authorities lifted the previous night-time curfew in December 2020 while the restriction on vehicles was dissolved in October.

The restrictions were lifted following a decline in cases from September, however, infections have been on the rise since December. Reported daily cases was over 100 for over a week from January 24, with the number dropping to below just 100 on February 2. Further, 215 new cases were reported on Monday alone.

The state of public health emergency, announced by the Minister of Health, allows the director general of public health to take the necessary precautionary measures for the safety of the people.