The Health Protection Agency, HPA has revealed that the agency introduced restrictions on vehicle use after 8pm in a bid to limit social movement of young people.
The Maldives has recorded 6,660 positive cases of COVID-19 and 26 fatalities. The number of cases have been drastically high over the past few weeks.
HPA on Saturday announced that vehicle movements will not be allowed between 8pm to 5am in capital Male’. The decision was met with outrage from the public, with many stating that the new measures cause several difficulties to the public.
In a tweet published on Sunday, HPA said the measures aim to limit social movements of young people, who are the highest recorded age group to be infected with COVID-19. While HPA would closely monitor the situation every week and make calculated decisions on how to best slow down the spread, the measures will be reviewed once a week, said HPA. A decision will be made on maintaining restrictions based on the observations of the week. If and when the situation improves and case numbers and hospitalizations drop, the measures will be eased accordingly, said HPA.
HPA further noted that the case numbers and hospitalizations of last week had been alarmingly high, which triggered additional restrictions. The agency urged the public to do their part to slow the spread of the virus.
