COVID-19: Maldives records 79 cases, active cases surpass 1,000

Health Protection Agency (HPA) has announced 79 additional cases of COVID-19, increasing confirmed COVID-19 cases in the Maldives to 14,712. The new cases mean that the Maldives currently has 1,017 active cases.

HPA stated that from the new cases, 36 cases were confirmed from the greater Male’ region, with six cases from residential islands outside Male’, and a further 35 cases from operational resorts and two from liveaboards.

The agency also added that 24 additional COVID-19 patients were confirmed to have made full recoveries over the last 24 hours, increasing total recoveries to 13,639. There are 79 patients in hospitals.

374,217 samples (including repeated samples) have been tested for COVID-19 to date.

Caseload over the week

• January 20: 79 cases
• January 19: 51 cases 
• January 18: 69 cases
• January 17: 51 cases
• January 16: 87 cases
• January 15: 50 cases
• January 14: 48 cases

49 COVID-19 patients have died from complications. Islands under monitoring include G. A. Dhaandhoo and G. A. Dhevvadhoo. Cases have also been detected in multiple resorts across the nation in the last 24 hours.

The Maldives first confirmed a case of the virus in March 2020. The first case in the congested capital Male' City was detected in April. Around two waves of the virus hit the nation in 2020, with the main epicenter being the capital.

The Maldives has now officially received the first batch of vaccines against the virus. Health authorities in the nation expect inoculations to commence in the near future. The first shipment was a gift from India consisting of 100,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine which is the vaccine developed by Astrazeneca and Oxford University.