COVID-19: 98 new infections; 6,941 vaccinations

Health Protection Agency (HPA), on Saturday, announced 98 additional cases of the new coronavirus, increasing confirmed coronavirus cases in Maldives to 20,663.

According to HPA, the 143 new cases include; 78 cases from the greater Male’ region, 6 cases from residential islands outside Male’, and 14 cases from operational resorts.

Meanwhile, 130 additional coronavirus patients were confirmed to have made full recoveries over the last 24 hours, increasing total recoveries to 17,979.

With the new developments, Maldives now has 2,613 active cases.

There are 161 patients in hospitals.

4,318 samples (including repeated samples) have been tested for the new coronavirus over the last 24-hours.

With the 98 new infections this Saturday, 1,066 people have tested positive over the last one-week period.

March 6: 98 cases

March 5: 118 cases

March 4: 167 cases

March 3: 136 cases

March 2: 165 cases

March 1: 186 cases

February 28: 196 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.

64 coronavirus patients have died from complications.

VACCINE DRIVE

Maldives began mass vaccinations against the new coronavirus on February 1.  HPA states 6,941 people were vaccinated on Saturday. Of the 6,941 people, 2,154 were from the greater Male’ region, and 4,787 were from the atolls.

Total 145,768 people have now been inoculated under program; 87,045 from the greater Male’ region, and 58,723 from the atolls.

Maldives has received 200,000 doses of the Covishield developed AstraZeneca and Oxford from India and has ordered 700,000 more doses of the same vaccine – which they expect to receive in March. Maldives has also received 5,000 doses of Sinopharm as a donation, and China has pledged a donation of 200,000 more doses of the same vaccine.