Boat captain from Narudhoo tests positive for coronavirus

A person has tested positive for COVID-19 from Sh. Narudhoo, marking the second residential island outside of the capital to confirm a virus case.

Sun has been informed the person who tested positive from Narudhoo is the captain of the boat Amaazu, which had travelled from Male’ to Narudhoo on April 16.

A team from Health Protection Agency (HPA) is in Naradhoo to transport him to an isolation facility.

The boat had carried some 150 passengers.

The boat captain had presented to the Narudhoo Health Center with flu symptoms. And the health center, based on his symptoms and travel history, requested the HPA to test him for COVID-19.

The rest of the boat’s crew has also been isolated.

It marks the second residential island outside of the capital to confirm a virus case, following H. A. Uligan, where a person who travelled back to the island following a trip to Male’ tested positive for the virus last week.

At a National Emergency Operations Center briefing this Saturday evening, Health Minister Abdulla Ameen said that it was likely that people infected with the new coronavirus were now in residential islands in the atolls, given that a large number of people had travelled out of the capital prior to the lockdown.

He stressed that it was not safe for anyone in the capital to travel out at this time.

“Anyone in Male’ has a high risk of infection. Therefore, we cannot allow for people to travel from Male’ to other islands,” said Ameen.

HPA has instructed anyone who may have travelled out of Male’ prior to the lockdown to practice 14 days of self-isolation at home.

HPA has announced eight new cases this Saturday, identified only as Maldivians.

Total virus cases in Maldives now stands at 137.