34 people have tested positive for Covid-19 from the Hulhumale' Prison complex, with 70 prisoners and 29 officers of the Maldives Correctional Service (MCS) having been identified as direct contacts of positive cases.

Hulhumale' Prison was placed under lockdown last Monday, after a 56-year-old inmate at the complex had tested positive for Covid-19.

In a press briefing held on Sunday night, Spokesperson for the Health Emergency Operations Center (HEOC) Dr. Nazla Rafeeq confirmed that 34 persons had tested positive for Covid-19 from the Hulhumale' Prison complex. An additional 70 prisoners and 29 corrections officers have been identified as contacts of the cases thus far.

Dr. Nazla reveled that all those that had tested positive for Covid-19 from Hulhumale' Prison had been in isolation, with those who have been identified as contacts now quarantined.

11 persons had previously tested positive for the Covid-19 infection from Hulhumale' Prison last September, including five expats who were being detained until deportation for failing to comply with immigration laws. Further, other prisoners who had been observing their sentences in the Hulhumale' Prison complex had also tested positive for Covid-19 in relation to this.

While health and safety regulations have been tightened in prisons across the country in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19, those that test positive for the infection in prisons are moved to quarantine facilities once their status is confirmed. Authorities then continue to perform contact tracing, and have previously conducted random sampling for prisons to gauge whether the virus had been spreading within prison establishments.