Maldives Covid-19 cases rise to 18,467; death toll reaches 60

While the 127 new Covid-19 cases reported on Friday pushes the Maldives’ tally to 18,467, the death toll reached 60 on Saturday.

Friday’s 127 cases were from the 4,245 samples tested within 24 hours. 98 were confirmed from capital Male’ area while 17 were from operational resorts, 10 from residential islands and two from live aboard vessels.

While this pushes the country’s coronavirus tally to 18,467, the additional 102 recoveries announced on Friday brings the total recovery count to 15,965.

Further, two Covid-19 related deaths were reported on Saturday morning; a63-year-old womanand69-year-old man, both locals, being treated at DH11 in Dharumavantha Hospital.

While this pushes the country’s death toll to 60, it includes 52 locals and eight foreigners.

Following the deaths, the 2,446 active cases reported on Friday night falls to 2,444.

While Maldives' first Covid-19 cases were confirmed from a resort in March 2020, 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 last year, and there was a second surge in cases after the island nation entered the third phase in mid-July. However, things started changing in September, and after months of declining cases, the country started seeing a spike in cases from January 24, which authorities have since confirmed as a third wave.

This has led to authorities reinforcing Covid-19 restrictions that were lifted following the decline in cases, including curfews, vehicle movement restrictions and a nationwide mask mandate.