Govt. in discussions for digital contact tracing of virus

The National Emergency Operations Center is working to conduct contact tracing of individuals positive or suspected for the Covid-19 virus digitally through an application.

Government spokesperson Mabrouq Azeez confirmed that the Maldives was in discussions with the European Union as well as some other countries to make arrangements for a digital way of contact tracing. Mabrouq said that the application would have to be translated into Dhivehi and would require the approval of the Technical Advisory Group (TAC).

“Under the current procedure, the contact tracing system requires a lot of questions to be answered by the individual being traced. One of the factors when moving the system to an app is that it should be on an interface that the individual being traced has the capacity of answering. We don’t have that set up right now.” said Mabrouq.

Mabrouq also said that the country currently had 4220 PCR test kits and 629 blood sample test kits. He added that 10,000 test kits from China and a further 10,000 test kits from Alibaba founder Jack Ma are set to arrive in the Maldives this week.

The Maldives has so far confirmed 23 cases of Covid-19. Sixteen of these cases have made full recoveries. The positive cases include 15 foreigners and eight locals. Thirteen of the recovered are foreigners while two tourists departed from the country before their test results were received as positive.

The two tourists had departed after completing their quarantine periods. Three cases were confirmed Male’ City. They include a mother and child as well as another individual in contact with them, who are all isolation.