The Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Thursday, announced that 141 more individuals tested positive for COVID-19 in the Maldives, while 145 people recovered from the disease.
The new cases include 96 Maldivians and 43 expatriates. Unlike previous occasions, HPA did not reveal the nationalities of the foreign citizens that tested positive.
According to the agency, 134 of the new positive cases were reported in the Greater Male’ Region, while the remaining seven were detected from islands outside of the capital area.
With these developments, the island nation now records total 8,281 confirmed and 2,763 active COVID-19 cases, along with 5,483 recoveries and 29 deaths.
In addition to the Greater Male’ region, active virus cases are present in 39 inhabited islands as well as 16 resorts across the archipelago.
After recording significantly low numbers in the months of May and June, the island nation recorded a significant rise in the number of COVID-19 cases per capita, indicating an alarming community spread in the country.
The number of recoveries, which consisted of 86 per cent of total infections at peak recovery rate, currently stands at 66 per cent.
The number of COVID-19 cases skyrocketed after the state initiated efforts to steer the country towards a ‘new normal’ with the phased easing of lockdown restrictions across the Greater Male’ Region.
As one of the most densely populated cities in the world, Maldives’ capital Malé continues to record a significant number of COVID-19 cases, similar to the first weeks following the first confirmed local transmission on April 15.
Experts have described Maldives’ current situation as a “dire” one. The Technical Advisory Group (TAG) announced that Maldives’ current alert level is at nine, noting that authorities may have to implement a second lockdown if the alert level hits 10.
HPA’s Medical Officer Dr Nazla Rafeeq recently revealed that the country is heading towards reaching maximum bed capacity, repeatedly advising the public to adhere to HPA’s safety guidelines.
On March 12, WHO classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. To date, the new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 26.3 million people and claimed over 870,000 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 18.5 million people have recovered.
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Source URL: Google News
