Health Emergency Operation Centre (HEOC) has stated islands placed under monitoring due to COVID-19 cannot be removed from monitoring without following the protocols for random sampling and testing for COVID-19.
HEOC stated islands are placed under monitoring when a possible community spread situation is identified, with a random sample testing positive for COVID-19. HEOC said such islands are removed from monitoring if random samples tested in the 14 days immediately after the first positive sample, test negative. Noting the guidelines require 10% of the population of an island to be tested during this period, HEOC said an island cannot be removed from monitoring without random sampling and testing. Therefore, the centre called for cooperation from all islands to take random samples and to ensure the islands can be removed from monitoring as early as possible.
The majority of COVID-19 cases currently reported in the Maldives are from inhabited islands in atolls. As per the latest statistics of HEOC, there are currently 12 islands under monitoring due to COVID-19 cases.