COVID-19: 127 new infections; 2,898 vaccinated

Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Sunday, announced 127 additional cases of the new coronavirus, increasing confirmed coronavirus cases in Maldives to 16,783.

According to HPA, the 127 new cases include; 92 cases from the greater Male’ region, 15 cases from residential islands outside Male’, 13 cases from operational resorts, and 7 cases from non-operational resorts.

Meanwhile, 48 additional coronavirus patients were confirmed to have made full recoveries over the last 24 hours, increasing total recoveries to 14,604.

With the new developments, Maldives now has 2,117 active cases.

There are 207 patients in hospitals.

433,954 samples (including repeated samples) have been tested for the new coronavirus to date.

With the 127 new infections this Sunday, 942 people have tested positive over the last one-week period.

February 7: 127 cases

February 6: 109 cases

February 5: 137 cases

February 4: 134 cases

February 3: 121 cases

February 2: 99 cases

February 1: 215 cases

Maldives identified its first coronavirus case on March 7, and declared a state of public health emergency over the pandemic less than a week later on March 12.

While coronavirus cases had initially been restricted to resorts and safaris, and later quarantine facilities holding inbound travelers, Male’ City identified its first coronavirus case on April 15, prompting a city-wide lockdown.

The populous capital quickly emerged as the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Maldives, contributing to the majority of total cases.

55 coronavirus patients have died from complications.

VACCINE DRIVE

Maldives began mass vaccinations against the new coronavirus on February 1.  HPA states 2,898 people were vaccinated on Sunday. Of the 2,898 people vaccinated on Sunday, 2,375 were from the greater Male’ region while 523 were from the atolls.

Total 9,752 people have now been inoculated under program; 7,963 from the greater Male’ region and 1,789 from the atolls.

Maldives received a donation of 100,000 doses of the Covishield developed AstraZeneca and Oxford in January and has ordered 700,000 more doses of the same vaccine – which they expect to receive in March. Meanwhile, China also donated 100,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine – which have yet to arrive in Maldives. The donation follows 5,000 doses of the same vaccine donated by well-wishers from China.

Maldives also expects to receive the first shipment of vaccines from World Health Organization (WHO) this February.