Maldives Covid-19 tally has surpassed the 26,000-mark.

Latest statistics publicized by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) reveal that healthcare officials tested 1,792 samples for the coronavirus pandemic over the past 24 hours, of which 82 came back positive for the infection.

It has been a week since the public health authority has been discovering lower than 100 daily infections and of the 82 new cases, 40 were confirmed from the Greater Malé Region, 24 from residential islands and 18 from operational resorts.

With this development Maldives Covid-19 tally currently sits at 26,021.

The number of recoveries from Covid-19 reported across the Maldives increased to 23,360 with 118 recoveries reported between 6pm Thursday and 6pm Friday.

The number of active infections nationwide dropped to 2,584 from 2,621 by Friday’s end.

Over the past 24 hours, five Covid-19 patients were released from hospitals, meaning that the number of hospital admissions has dropped to 53.

The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed 69 lives thus far, the latest fatalities having been reported on Friday.

As such, two Covid-19 patients, aged 82 and 86 died from complications of the virus. The latter was a man who was rushed to the Emergency Room of Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital and was pronounced dead at 4pm, and the 82-year-old was a woman who died on Friday morning.

The Covid-19 caseload has begun decreasing at a time Maldives drove through a devastating third peak of the virus during the past few months, which led to the reintroduction of a curfew and vehicle movement restrictions across the Covid-19 epicenter Malé City and several measures nationwide.

Daily cases being reported began declining recently, leading to the curfew and some restrictions being dissolved.

Despite the eases stemming from a gradual decrease in Covid-19 cases being reported, authorities continue to urge the public to strictly adhere to the precautionary measures and guidelines in place such as maintaining a safe distance, avoiding social gatherings, maintaining hygiene and following the face mask mandate.

Maldives has been in a state of public health emergency for over a year and the last extension is set to expire on May 4.