Infant under the age of one month tests positive for coronavirus

Health Protection Agency (HPA) epidemiologist Dr. Nazla Rafeeq, on Saturday, announced that Maldives’ COVID-19 cases included an infant under the age of one month.

The announcement was made by Dr. Nazla at a National Emergency Operations Center press briefing on Saturday night.

According to Dr. Nazla, the infant is an indirect contact of a confirmed case.

“The infant was tested because a contact of a positive case had contact with the infant. And the infant also showed some symptoms. The infant was tested first. And work is now underway to test the infant’s mother,” she said.

It marks the youngest child to have tested positive for the new coronavirus in Maldives.

The youngest who had previously tested positive was a seven month infant. Other members of the infant’s family had also later tested positive.

Meanwhile, the newborn infant of a woman who had tested positive when she got hospitalized after going into labor tested negative. None of the woman’s direct contacts, including her husband, have tested positive.

1,078 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Maldives. 49 have since recovered and four have died from complications.