Virus-free islands allowed to resume sports activities

Youth Ministry, on Tuesday, announced the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) have stated they have no objection to allowing islands which have no experienced cases of the new coronavirus and islands which have been free from monitoring for 14 days to resume sports activities.

Youth Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday afternoon which said the ministry had initiated discussions with HPA and TAG following an overwhelming number of requests from residents of local islands to be allowed to resume sports activities.

The ministry said that both HPA and TAG said they had no objection to authorizing local councils to issue permission to hold sports activities in islands which have not experiences virus cases and islands which have been free from monitoring from 14 days.

While HPA and TAG allowed the ease in the restriction, they stressed they did not support resuming group sports activities which require close proximity to one another, and encouraged people to maintain social distancing.

They also warned that while islands which have been free from monitoring for 14 days may be allowed to resume sports activities, the authorities may been to close down sports arenas at any given moment if the situation changes.

The Maldivian government had previously suspended all nonessential transport, mass prayers in mosques and sports activities nationwide in a bid to curb the spread of the new coronavirus. It has now begun easing some of the restrictions on islands which have not had virus cases, including allowing mass prayers, and now sports activities.