92 out of 131 Covid-19 cases reported on Sunday, from Maldives capital
Maldives Covid-19 total is at 20,794
A curfew and vehicle movement restrictions are currently in place in Malé City after sundown
Maldives reported 131 new cases of the global Covid-19 pandemic, on Sunday.
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) revealed that 92 of the new infections were detected in the Greater Malé Region, whereas 29 were discovered from operational resorts nationwide and 10, from residential islands.
The new cases were confirmed out of the 3,691 samples collected for testing within the past 24 hours.
With this development, the country’s total coronavirus tally has been pushed to 20,794, with 2,599 active infections nationwide.
Further, HPA reported 145 recoveries from the virus on Sunday, which means that a total of 18,124 patients have recovered from the pandemic in the island nation thus far.
Out of the over 2,000 active cases, 166 patients remain hospitalized for treatment.
On Thursday, public health authorities reported the 64th death from Covid-19, confirming the passing of a 78-year-old local man, being treated for the infection on the 11th floor of Dharumavantha Hospital.
With this being said, public health authorities recently extended and implemented stricter measures across the nation, in an effort to curb the spread of Covid-19 in the region, at a time daily infections have been snowballing and public health authorities have been raising concern over the mounting caseload.
Under new measures, Malé City residents are now required to provide negative PCR results with a sample taken 72 hours prior to traveling to island, with special permission for essential travel.
Authorities reintroduced a curfew in the Greater Malé Region on February 12, in light of the spike in daily infections being reported for the past couple of weeks. The nearly six-hour curfew was followed by restrictions on vehicle movement from 6pm to 6am for Greater Malé residents.
On Thursday, Maldives also extended the state of public health emergency for another month.
HPA statistics also show that the flu positivity rate has gone down despite the increase in cases, especially from the capital region, which means that fewer people are attending flu clinics despite presenting symptoms of Covid-19. Health authorities have warned that they may have to begin "choosing" Covid-19 patients for treatment if the caseload continues to increase, and have requested public support in controlling the spread of the virus to prevent further fatalities.
