Health Protection Agency epidemiologist Dr. Ibrahim Afzal says the agency has commenced active surveillance of the elderly population and has begun taking samples from the elderly population.
Speaking to the media, Dr. Afzal said that HPA was working to determine the spread of the virus among high-risk populations within the community. He said this would include the elderly population in the country and that their samples would be taken for testing.
Dr. Afzal reiterated that these samples would be taken from across the country but many of the samples would be taken from the Male’ Area with the Covid-19 virus spreading rapidly in the capital city.
He explained that this was a sub-component of the active surveillance carried out to determine the vulnerable populations to the illness.
Elderly persons and persons with Chronic diseases are considered as high risk for Covid-19.
Three people have died of Covid-19 in the Maldives with two of them above 80-years-old. Two other elderly patients remain on the ventilator at DH11.
