The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has announced four new cases of COVID-19 in capital Male' over the past 24 hours.
While the total number of infections in the archipelago has now reached 29, the number of cases in Male' is now 9, with authorities warning that as many as 100 positive cases may currently be active in the capital.
Speaking at the National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC)'s daily press conference on Friday, HPA's epidemiologist Dr. Nazla Rafeeq said the known cases are from three different clusters, which shows that human to human transmission is rapidly increasing in the capital. Dr. Sheena Moosa from NEOC said it is believed that the number of positive cases in Male' is likely to be six times more than what has been identified thus far, according to the data gathered via contact tracing. The situation in Male' is extremely vulnerable and dangerous, said the authority.
The first case of COVID-19 (MAV21) was detected in Male' city on Wednesday, after a woman with no recent travel history, and no direct links to a positive case presented herself to the Senahiya Flu Clinic with symptoms of the infection. Authorities say the patient had over 200 direct contacts over a span of five days, out of which 75 are high risk contacts.
Since then, MAV22 and MAV23, both direct contacts of MAV21 have tested positive for the virus, and three direct contacts of MAV23 (MAV 24, 25, 26) have tested positive for the virus. However, cases MAV27 and 28 are not known to be linked to any previous cases, and believed to be from two seperate, new clusters. The latest positive patient, MAV29 is a direct contact of MAV27.
While the capital city has been placed on a strict 14-day lockdown, inter-island travel has also been banned. The index case that led to local transmission has not been identified thus far.
