Malé, Maldives — Dr. Nazla Rafeeg of the Health Emergency Operation Centre (HEOC) revealed that unless the unlinked Covid-19 cases in Malé area decreases, the quarantine measures will not be lifted in the country.
During a press conference, Dr. Nazla informed that approximately 22 percent of the cases are of people who have never met a positive case knowingly.
Dr. Nazla stated that, she doesn’t wish to keep the quarantine measures in a way that it would disturb the daily lives of people, but as having unlinked cases is a concerning matter, the quarantine measures cannot be lifted until the cases decrease in the country.
While Dr. Nazla is also the Senior Medical Officer of HPA, she informed the citizens that a lot of things need to be inspected before easing the quarantine measures in the country.
She said that when the Covid-19 cases started to increase in Malé city, that they had to bring some of the medical officers from the atolls to handle the situation in Malé. This is why, she said that they must inspect and be aware of the ability of the medical officers currently in the atolls.
“As people are home quarantined after travelling from Male’ to different atolls, till date, we have confirmed approximately 198 positive Covid-19 cases from these people. Imagine how many cases would have raised if we didn’t have the quarantine measures and let the 198 people free,” Dr. Nazla explained.
Dr. Nazla also took time to respond to the complaints from locals about letting the tourists travel to different islands without having to do the mandatory quarantine measures. She agreed with the locals saying that some of the tourists who travel have tested positive for the virus, just as how the locals have as well. But, she said that there is a vast difference between locals and tourists.
“If a local travels to another island, they will be spending time with their family members, visiting their friends, going to different places that provides services such as shops, schools, salons and many more public places. This way they will be meeting a lot of people” Dr. Nazla explained.
However, Dr. Nazla stated that they are hoping to ease the quarantine measures as soon as the number of Covid-19 cases decreases in Maldives.
While the country has recorded only 27 Covid-19 cases over the past 24-hours, the number of confirmed cases have decreased by a great extend over the past months. Maldives initially confirmed three-digit numbers, however, the number of confirmed cases has decreased by a great extend now.
Although the country has confirmed a total of 12,112 Covid-19 cases, there are only 820 active cases remaining. Out of the confirmed cases, 11,244 people have made full recoveries and 41 people have passed away from the virus.
