Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC) has announced its decision to transfer healthcare workers in islands to Male’ in an effort to manage the surge of COVID-19 cases in the capital over the past few weeks.
Speaking at a news conference held at HEOC, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed from the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) said more doctors and nurses need to be at service in Male’ as it is the epicenter of the outbreak in the country. A majority of the healthcare workers and front line officers working in Greater Male’ region have already tested positive for COVID-19 and the remaining professionals are working under a huge pressure due to limited number of professionals serving in managing the pandemic situation in the country.
Dr. Shaheed said the number of admitted patients have doubled and the sector does not have enough professionals to deal with the situation. Noting the health ministry is also working to recruit expatriate doctors and nurses to manage the situation, the doctor said all available doctors in Male’ City must be engaged in managing the current situation, if the surge does not come down. He added the doctors working now are already tired both physically and psychologically.
The latest statistics of Health Protection Agency (HPA) revealed the number of COVID-19 cases in the Maldives has exceeded 7,000, including over 2,500 active cases.