Male’, Maldives —The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has stated that they are currently having discussions with the President of Maldives, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on the steps that need to be taken against the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the country.
While talks of the greater Male’ city going into a lockdown has been active in the social media, some media report that the authorities are planning for a lockdown after the upcoming Eid al-Fitr 2021 on May 12.
However, during last nights press conference held by HPA, the Spokesperson of President’s Office, Mohamed Mabrook Azeez informed that they have not yet made any decisions regarding lockdown but are discussing with the President to decide on what steps need to be taken to stop the rapid spread of Covid-19.
Discussions are currently ongoing regarding what steps need to be taken next to be safe. By the time this meeting ends, an extra measure is expected to be taken.
Mabrook Azeez, Spokesperson, President’s Office
Repeating the words of Technical Advisory Group (TAG), Mabrook stated that however measures stricter when compared to the present will be implemented and if the measures do not control the spread of virus, a lockdown will be placed.
Over the past week, the daily number of Covid-19 cases have been above 700, with the country recording over 1,000 cases within the past two days. Yesterday itself, HPA revealed that a total of 1,204 Covid-19 cases, out of which 961 were from the greater Male’ area, while 235 cases were recorded from inhabited islands. The figures also included 08 cases from operational resorts which has brought up the total active cases to 10,376 in Maldives.
As the number of positive cases increase by the day, the Health Emergency Operations Center informed that this time, the number of children testing positive for the virus has increased as well as the facilities are treating 211 kids below the age of 18. Other than this, 29 people above the age of 65 are also getting treated for Covid-19 at the hospital.
This is the worst Covid-19 wave to hit the Maldives so far with the positive percentage remaining above 80 percent along with the amount of vulnerable people increasing in the country. Currently, there is only one empty bed available at the ICU of Dharumavantha hospital.
With majority of the hospitalized patients being in the capital, experts continuously reiterate the importance of taking preventive steps against Covid-19, such as maintaining adequate physical distancing, wearing masks and practicing hand hygiene.
