Cabinet discusses upping alert level if COVID-19 cases increase

The Cabinet, on Thursday, discussed upping the health emergency alert level in Maldives, which currently stands at ‘yellow’, to ‘orange’ level, if the number of people who test positive for COVID-19 continues to increase.

Eight people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Maldives, all of whom are foreign nationals who were either working or vacationing in resort islands Kuredu, Sandies Bathala and Kuramathi.

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, on Thursday morning, convened his Cabinet of ministers for discussions regarding the enforcement of additional safety and security measures in light of World Health Organization (WHO) declaring COVID-19 as a pandemic.

According to the President’s Office, the Cabinet ministers, at the meeting, discussed the additional measures which must be taken into consideration if the outbreak in Maldives persists.

They discussed upping the emergency alert level to ‘orange’ if the number of positive cases continues to increase, and the imminent tasks such a situation will entail.

“During today's meeting, Cabinet Ministers underscored the additional measures that must be taken into consideration in the event that the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Maldives persists and further deliberated on the imminent tasks if the current 'Yellow' emergency level to has to be revised to 'Orange' level, which depicts severe and significant emergency conditions in the country,” reads a statement issued by the President’s Office.

The Cabinet ministers also discussed additional measures which required immediate implementation.