The Minister of Health has extended the duration of the State of Public Health Emergency declared in the Maldives.
The emergency state was invoked by Health Minister Abdulla Ameen on March 12 for a period of 30 days by the discretionary powers vested in the minister by Section 33 of the 7/2012 Public Health Act. The measure was taken after the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the current COVID-19 outbreak as a global 'pandemic'.
Since then, the state of public health emergency has been extended six times, most recently on July 15. While the duration expired on August 7, the Health Ministry announced that the public health emergency state will be maintained until September 6. Any special measures that the situation calls for will be taken accordingly.
Maldives has recorded 4,769 confirmed cases of COVID-19 thus far, and 19 COVID-19 deaths. The number of active cases is 1996. The number of cases have been increasing rapidly over the past two weeks.
