In the press conference held today, Medical Officer Dr. Nazla Rafeeq mentions that this decision was made based on evaluation done on the information they had received over the past two years about the virus.
She states, “People that have not been fully vaccinated will still have to quarantine for 14 days. They will be released after doing a PCR test, and if they receive a negative result,”
Dr. Nazla also mentions that previously, it was a 14-day quarantine period, but now, it will be a period of 10 days starting from the day the sample was taken.
Along with this, those who are direct contacts of a Covid positive patient, have gotten their full vaccination and show no signs of symptoms, were given two options to choose from. They can either complete the full quarantine of ten days or they can quarantine for five days and do a PCR test.
After the ten-day quarantine is complete, and they show no sign of symptoms, no further testing is required. However, if they do show symptoms, they are mandated to do further testing.
"People that have not been fully vaccinated will still have to quarantine for 14 days. They will be released after doing a PCR test, and if they receive a negative result," she said.
HPA held this press conference in order to urge everyone to continue practicing hygiene and precautionary measures in order to overcome the Omicron surge as Covid-19 cases in the Maldives are projected to increase within the next few weeks.