‘Too Early to Lift Coronavirus Lockdown’ –Maldives

Sunday 26th of April 2020

‘Too Early to Lift Coronavirus Lockdown’ –Maldives

On 25th April, health officials in Maldives warned that it’s too early to consider a strategy for exiting the coronavirus lockdown, as they moved to conduct surveillance testing to identify the magnitude of the coronavirus outbreak in the country. Health Minister Abdulla Ameen stated that the current measures were “beginning to work”, but “haven’t reached the point where we could lift the lockdown in the next four days.”

Director General of Public Health Maimoona Abu Bakr says that the lockdown has enabled her team to trace contacts of the positive cases. The lockdown has also proven effective at preventing the virus from spreading to the rest of the archipelago of 1,190 islands. Meanwhile, Minister Ameen said a sentinel surveillance program has been launched to determine the extent of the outbreak. “Our surveillance tests have already identified cases with no direct links with previously identified patients,” the minister said.

On 15th April, the country went into the first lockdown for 24 hours as the first local case was reported. This was extended to a 14 days lockdown on 17th April. The situation continues to deteriorate as more cases of local transmissions are identified.