National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) has revealed Maldivians arriving from overseas will be placed in home quarantine from Wednesday onward.
Speaking in a new brief held on Tuesday night, NEOC’s spokesperson Mabrook Azeez said 262 Maldivians residing in Sri Lanka are to be repatriated on Wednesday, and 153 of them have requested to be placed in home quarantine.
Mabrook said their request has been approved, including several who wish to be quarantined in their homes in various islands. He said Maldives National Defense Force will arrange the transportation of those who are being quarantined in the islands. He added that it will be the new protocol for people who are repatriated from Wednesday onward. Maldivian citizens who were repatriated earlier were quarantined at government assigned facilities. Currently, there are 500 people in the quarantine facilities.
A quarantine guideline has been developed for people who will be quarantined in the other islands. As per the guideline, people will be placed in quarantine in the islands after they register with the respective island’s council office. The council will ensure that the house the person will be placed in home quarantine in meets the criteria mentioned in the guideline.
A person will be placed in home quarantine for 24 days. After 24 days, the person will be tested for COVID-19, and if the result comes back negative, he/she will be released from quarantine. Only those who do not display any symptom of COVID-19 will only be sent to islands for home quarantine.
