Male’, Maldives – The government of Maldives has extended the State of Public Health Emergency in the country for the 12th time since the Covid-19 outbreak on March in the capital city, Male’.
The State of Public Health Emergency is extended till March 5th of 2021
While the State of Public Health Emergency was initially till February 3rd of this year, the Minister of Health of Maldives, Ahmed Naseem (Kerafa Naseem) signed another extension, and revealed that the State of Public Health Emergency will be extended till March 5th of 2021.
Maldives identified its first coronavirus case on 7 March 2020, and declared a state of public health emergency over the pandemic less than a week later on 12 March 2020. Since then, the duration of the state of public health emergency has been extended multiple times of which the latest extension order comes with the previous order, issued on 4 January 2021 which is set to expire today.
Minister Naseem informed that the Director General of Public Health has advised him that the threat of a severe nationwide outbreak remained prevalent, and that Maldives needed to implement special measures to mitigate the threat and ascertain the health and safety of the people.
This is the 12th time the State of Public Health Emergency has been extended in Maldives, after a surge in the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases were seen in the capital Male’ city over the past weeks with the country recording over 200 daily Covid-19 cases.
Along with the surge in the number of daily confirmed Covid-19 cases, HEOC revealed that the new Covid-19 variant has also been found in the Maldives.
With this, the HEOC has has imposed several restrictions in the country to control the spread of the Covid-19 virus and the new Covid-19 variant. This includes of mandating masks throughout the country, a curfew from 8:30PM in the capital Male’ city, along with a restriction going outside from 11PM to 4:30AM, for 14 days.
In addition to this, all preschools have been ordered to close immediately with universities having to conduct online classes for the upcoming two weeks. Along with this, all sports activities in the Male’ area has also been prohibited until further notice.
