Health Protection Agency (HPA) has revealed the number of samples collected to test for COVID-19 has exceeded one million. A total of 4,000 to 7,000 samples are collected daily across the Maldives, according to statistics.
The government prioritised establishing testing mechanisms across the Maldives following the spread of COVID-19. Initially, during March last year, samples collected were sent to India to test for COVID-19. A total of 1,087,705 samples have been collected and tested since testing arrangements were permanently made in the Maldives on March 8 last year. As such testing facilities have been established in five regions across the country, with efforts underway to enhance the testing capacity in Raa Atoll, Lhaviyani Atoll, Laamu Atoll and Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll.
Meanwhile, the active cases of COVID-19 in the Maldives have significantly decreased in the past few weeks. Maldives this year experienced the most dangerous COVID-19 wave since the first cases of the outbreak were detected in March 2020, revealed HPA. As such, during January the daily COVID-19 cases were above 100 and the active cases were above 3,000. The daily COVID-19 cases rose to 200 in March and the active cases reached above 5,000.
However, the positive cases have seen a significant decrease with effective restrictive measures announced by the government. Currently, there are 2,400 active cases in the Maldives.