Speaker of the Parliament Mohamed Nasheed has urged the public to wear masks as the Maldives is experiencing the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking in the parliamentary sitting held on Monday, Speaker Nasheed said even though members are not wearing masks in the parliamentary meetings, he believes that they should wear masks in public. The former president added that he does not wear masks in sittings because he has received information that keeping 3 feet distance from others gives adequate protection.
“I was aware of it even before. However, what happens is when we do not wear masks, those who wear masks among the public will be lesser. So, I humbly request the public to keep wearing the masks,” said Speaker Nasheed.
The daily positive cases have been surging since the relaxation of movement restrictions. Most of the newly positive cases of locals. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has warned that stringent measures might have to be imposed again to curb the spread of the virus.
The public raised concerns when physical parliamentary sittings were resumed in the chamber while stringent lockdown measures were in place in Male' city. When a public health emergency was first declared in the Maldives, the parliamentary sittings were temporarily halted. After that, the sittings resumed virtually. However, after about three weeks of virtual sittings, the meetings were resumed at the hall against the restrictions imposed by HPA. Later, HPA permitted to continue the meetings conditioning to take stringent safety measures at the parliament house.
Speaker has been allowing members who are not wearing masks to be in the meetings if the social distance is maintained.
