Covid-19: 112 new cases, 157 recoveries reported on Sunday

The most recent Health Protection Agency (HPA) statistics show that the Maldives' reported 112 new cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, bringing the nation's total Covid-19 tally up to 17,828.

Sunday's 112 new cases were reported from 3,497 samples tested for the Covid-19 infection between 6PM Saturday and 6PM Sunday. With this, the Maldives has tested a total of 461,617 samples for Covid-19 thus far.

81 of Sunday's 112 cases were reported from Male' City, which makes up 75 percent of all new cases detected in the last 24-hours. An additional 11 persons tested positive for Covid-19 from inhabited islands, and 14 cases were reported from operational resorts. Five cases were reported from industrial islands, and one case was confirmed from an island under development.

While the number of active cases have decreased by 45 over the last day to 2,315, an additional 157 persons are reported to have recovered from the infection in that time. With this, a total of 15,448 people in the Maldives have recovered from Covid-19. The country has seen 58 deaths linked to Covid-19 and related health complications, with the two most recent deaths confirmed on Saturday.

Health authorities have implemented restrictions such as a curfew, a ban on vehicles effective from sundown to sunrise, and a limit on the number of people who can gather in public spaces in Male' City in order to curb the spread of Covid-19. Addu City and Fuvahmulah City are also under a state of monitoring with positive cases identified on the islands. Authorities continue to conduct random sampling and contact tracing efforts to understand the degree of severity for community transmissions in both the cities.

HPA Public Health Inspectorate Director Ahmed Nasir, speaking at a press on Saturday, detailed the familiar difficulties of a lockdown, and stated that the restrictions currently in place were to control Covid-19 transmissions without having resort to more drastic measures. Highlighting the importance of following HPA guidelines, Nasir warned that in new cases were not controlled, the public health authority would rethink the decision about a possible lockdown, as it had proved successful in controlling the spread of the virus last year.