Ministry of Health has opened a new COVID-19 facility in Hulhumale' called the Infectious Diseases Management Centre.
The facility is equipped to provide both emergency and in-patient care with 272 in-patient beds and 44 intensive care unit (ICU) beds. The health ministry stated the new facility was opened as part of the commitment to improve the quality of care provided to COVID-19 patients. The ministry added the current functional capacity is 35 in-patient beds with five ICU beds.
The government tasked Housing Development Corporation (HDC) with constructing the COVID-19 medical facility in Hulhumale' in 2021. The facility was developed in a building that had been used as a distribution centre of HDC and was completed and handed over to the health ministry in December 2021. The oxygen is being supplied to the new facility through a pipeline connected to an oxygen station, rather than carrying oxygen cylinders.
The facility was opened to increase the capacity to treat patients in case the number of COVID-19 cases drastically increases following a new wave of infections. Health Emergency Operation Centre (HEOC) also changed Hulhumale' Hospital to a 120-bed COVID-19 facility following an increase in infections in 2021.
The latest update from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) shows the number of COVID-19 cases is decreasing in the Maldives, with 14,520 active cases and eight individuals receiving hospital treatment.