Minister of Health, Ahmed Naseem has extended the duration of the State of Public Health Emergency declared in the Maldives.
The emergency state was invoked by former 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 several times. While the most recent extension of the emergency state expired on February 3rd, the Health Ministry announced that the public health emergency state will be maintained until March 5th as COVID-19 still remains a threat to the Maldives. Any special measures that the situation calls for will be taken accordingly.
Maldives has recorded 16,155 confirmed cases of COVID-19 thus far, and 53 COVID-19 deaths. The number of positive cases has been increasing rapidly over the past few weeks, and authorities tightened restrictions earlier this week. The number of active cases is 1,833.
