Coronavirus cases in the Maldives neared 1,800 Sunday after health officials reported 101 new infections in a day — the second biggest daily surge in the number of Covid-19 cases in the island nation.

Health Protection Agency (HPA) said a total of 101 new cases were detected in the 24 hours from 6pm Saturday, bringing the national tally to 1,773.

The new cases include 71 Bangladeshis, 21 Indians and eight Maldivians.

Mabrouk Abdul Azeez, a spokesperson for the government’s emergency operations centre, told reporters Sunday evening that all the new cases except two are linked to already identified clusters.

Most of the expatriate workers that tested positive Sunday had already been moved to designated containment sites from cramped up dormitories, he said.

The confirmed local transmission clusters in the country now include 973 Bangladeshis, 563 Maldivians, 186 Indians, 23 Nepalis, nine Sri Lankans and three Pakistanis.

Sunday saw the second highest daily spike in coronavirus infections in the Maldives to date. The highest daily increase in case numbers was on April 30 when the country reported 178 new cases.

The grim milestone came just two days after health officials again extended a state of public health emergency and outlined a roadmap to ease the Maldives out of lockdown, with people now allowed to go out for more hours and general businesses permitted to open.

However, officials were quick to dismiss concerns that the recent spike in cases was the result of the steps taken to ease the lockdown in the capital region.

During the press briefing Sunday, Dr Ibrahim Afzal, an epidemiologist with the Health Protection Agency (HPA), called it a “typical increase” in case numbers.

“If we look at the cases, all the cases except two are linked to already identified clusters,” he said.

Authorities managed to mitigate the spread of the virus and the Covid-19 respiratory disease it causes amongst the Maldives’ citizens and residents early on by closing the Indian Ocean tourist paradise’s borders, earning praise from the World Health Organisation.

But the disease later spread rapidly within the large migrant worker community in capital Male. Authorities have ramped up relocating workers from the cramped up dormitories in one of the world’s most densely populated cities to temporary accommodation units.

An estimated 63,000 foreign nationals work in the Maldives illegally out of a migrant worker population close to 145,000.

Foreign workers in the Maldives, predominantly Bangladeshi and Indian men, are subjected to practices indicative of forced labour, including fraudulent recruitment, confiscation of identity and travel documents, withholding or non-payment of wages, and debt bondage.

As most migrant workers live in extremely poor conditions, a widespread outbreak amongst them could lead to large virus clusters, overwhelming the country’s already under staffed and strained healthcare system and making it harder for authorities to contain the spread of the virus.

On March 8, Maldives reported its first cases of the novel coronavirus, as two hotel employees tested positive for Covid-19 at a luxury resort in the archipelago.

Eighteen more cases — all foreigners working or staying resorts and liveaboard vessels except five Maldivians who had returned from abroad — were later identified.

A six-case cluster of locals, detected in capital Male on April 15, confirmed community transmission of the coronavirus. Several more clusters have since been identified, bringing the total number of confirmed case in the Maldives to 1,773.

Five deaths have been reported and 453 have made full recoveries. Five remain in intensive care.

The Maldives announced a state of public health emergency on March 12, the first such declaration under a recent public health protection law.

The public health emergency declaration allowed the government to introduce a series of unprecedented restrictive and social distancing measures, including stay-at-home orders in capital Male and its suburbs, a ban on inter-island transport and public gatherings across the country, and a nationwide closing of government offices, schools, colleges and universities.

Non-essential services and public places in the capital such as gyms, cinemas and parks were also shut.

Restaurants and cafes in the capital were asked to stop dine-in service and switch to takeaway and delivery.

A nationwide shutdown of all guesthouses, city hotels and spa facilities located on inhabited islands is also in effect.

The coronavirus outbreak has hit the Maldivian economy hard, as travel restrictions and other preventive measures affect the country’s lucrative tourism industry, which contributes the bulk of the island nation’s state revenue and foreign reserves.

Before the pandemic, the government had been bullish about tourism prospects, targeting two million, high-spending holidaymakers this year after last year’s record 1.7 million.

However, tourist arrivals saw a year-over-year decline of 22.8 per cent in the first 10 days of March. Officials say the number of tourist arrivals to the Maldives could drop by half in 2020.

All international airlines have suspended scheduled operations to the Maldives, as the island nation enforced a blanket suspension of on-arrival visa in late March in a bid to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Even before the visa suspension, the Maldives had closed its borders to arrivals from some of the worst-hit countries, including mainland China, Italy, Bangladesh, Iran, Spain, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. Visitors from three regions of Germany (Bavaria, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg), two regions of France (Île-de-France and Grand Est) and two regions of South Korea were also banned from entering the country.

All direct flights to and from China, Italy, South Korea and Iran were also cancelled.

Cruise ships and foreign yachts were also banned from docking at any of the country’s ports.

With arrival numbers falling and the visa suspension in effect, several resorts across the Maldives had been closed.

Tourism has been the bedrock of the Maldives’ economic success. The $5 billion-dollar economy grew by 6.7 per cent in 2018 with tourism generating 60 per cent of foreign income.

However, the government is at present projecting a possible 13 per cent economic contraction this year — an estimated $778 million hit.

Photo: Sun Online