Malé, Maldives – Health Emergency Operation Center (HEOC) spokesperson Dr. Fathimath Nazla Rafeeq has stated that the Indian and UK variants of Covid-19 have been discovered in the Maldives.
At a press conference held at the President’s Office, Dr. Nazla revealed that the currently increasing cases is the result of the especially contagious Indian Delta variant , with 27% of samples confirmed to be the Delta variant. She also noted that 20% of samples were found to be the Alpha variant, found first in the UK.
Dr. Nazla stated that to confirm the variants currently in the Maldives, 3 batches with 30 samples each were sent for sequencing.
In addition to these, the samples also revealed 3 other variants according to Dr. Nazla.
“Due to travel within the Maldives, Maldivians travelling abroad and people coming to the Maldives for various reasons, much like anywhere else, new variants may spread within the country ” stated Dr. Nazla.
She also said that an effort to send more samples for sequencing in the future with assistance from the WHO.
The easements in the capital have been given Greater Malé Area in the past several days with a decrease in daily active cases within the area.
The Health Protection Agency (HPA), has eased the curfew restrictions placed in Male’ City, following the low cases being reported in the region, shortening the curfew hours from 16:00 till 04:00 in addition to other various easements.
As per the agency’s statistics, out of the new cases, 111 were from the Greater Malé area, while 105 cases were recorded from inhabited islands. The figures also included 08 cases from operational resorts, bringing the total active cases in the country to 8,155.
With this, the total number of Covid-19 cases recorded in the country has reached 70,897 out of which 62,533 patients have made full recoveries to date.
Maldives is slowly recovering from the worst Covid-19 wave since the island nation’s first case of community spread in April 2020.
