Discussions underway to establish additional quarantine facilities

Discussions are ongoing to increase the number of quarantine facilities established in the Maldives.

The government said they are communicating with several resorts to ensure there are enough quarantine facilities to house all Maldivian nationals repatriated from foreign countries.

Speaking after the daily press conference held by the National Emergency Operation Centre on Friday, CEO of National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Hisaan Hassan said discussions are ongoing with the Tourism Ministry and some resorts to turn the resorts into temporary quarantine facilities. However, no arrangements have been confirmed thus far, said Hisaan.

Currently, 12 quarantine facilities are established across Maldives, which has the capacity to accomodate 1100 people. The government recently made it mandatory for all inbound arrivals to complete a 14-day quarantine upon arrival.

Hisaan said as of yesterday, over 1000 people were housed at quarantine facilities, and those who complete the quarantine period, and test negative for COVID-19 are being released.

Addressing the public's concerns on the policies being followed in prioritizing who are being repatriated from foreign countries, Hisaan said the government is focusing on repatriating Maldivian nationals seeking medical treatment and education in foreign countries under government assistance. However, arrangements are also being made to repatriate other Maldivian nationals who wish to return to the country.

Hisaan said more rescue flights are being scheduled for next week to repatriate Maldivians stranded in several locations including Cochin, Trivandrum and Bangalore of India, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Repatriation flights operated by the national carrier have brought back 200 Maldivian nationals in Cochin, 100 in India and 197 Maldivians in Malaysia.

Maldives has recorded 19 confirmed cases of COVID-19 thus far. Out of these, six cases are currently active, while the remaining patients have recovered from the illness. Two active cases are of foreigners who have already departed from the Maldives, and the remaining four are all locals who returned to the archipelago from the United Kingdom.