'Orange Hiyaa’ Covid facility expected to be complete in March

Housing Development Corportation (HDC) states work on the Orange Hiyaa Covid Facility is expected to be fully complete in March. 

Orange Hiyaa will be the second COVID-19 medical facility in suburban Hulhumale’. 

According to the government, the purpose of the second facility is to accommodate a possible rise in patients who require hospitalized treatment with a new wave of COVID-19. 

HDC had handed over the 200-bed facility to the Health Ministry earlier January, but says it is now conducting additional work on the facility at the instructions of the Hulhumale’ Hospital – which will operate the facility. 

Overall, 99 percent of the work on the facility is complete, said HDC. 

The government had announced the decision to build Orange Hiyaa with the fourth wave of COVID-19 which hit Maldives in the middle of last year. 

Orange Hiyaa was previously a distribution center, and was later made a quarantine facility for migrant workers. 

Work on the new facility comes as Maldives battles with a surge in COVID-19 cases, fueled by the Omicron variant. 

 Health Protection Agency (HPA) has confirmed eight local cases of Omicron, and has warned cases of the new COVID-19 variant was expected to increase nationwide, and peak by the end of January or beginning of February.