Total 48 people rescued from streets following Male’ lockdown

Maldives Police Service, on Thursday, announced that total 48 people had been rescued from the streets following the lockdown on Male’ City.

According to the police, the number includes 46 Maldivian nationals and two foreign nationals. Of the 46 Maldivian nationals, 44 were males while two were females.

The operation to provide food and shelter to people rescued from the streets was coordinated at the request of the police by the Gender Ministry, in collaboration with Ministry of Education and Ministry of Islamic Affairs.

Maldives Police Service and volunteers from the Maldivian Red Crescent had worked in the frontlines to distribute the food and move the people to the shelter.

All 48 are in a temporary shelter, and the Gender Ministry has announced that it was coordinating with the Male’ City Council to assess their condition and arrange better accommodation for them.

The lockdown on Male’ City and suburban Hulhumale’ and Vilimale’ followed the emergence of the first COVID-19 case on Wednesday morning. The patient, who had resided in Maafannu district of Male’, has no recent travel history overseas nor had any contact with any other positive cases. Two others who had contact with the patient have also tested positive, including a toddler – a child of the first patient.

The lockdown, which had been set to expire at 3:30 pm this Thursday, has been extended by another 24 hours.