Health Emergency Operations Center HEOC says two more staff have tested positive for COVID-19 from Kandima Resort.

It said that a total of 19 individuals have now tested positive for COVID-19 from the resort and that they are all staff members.

HEOC said that 12 staff and 21 departing guests were tested for the pandemic last night and that two of their results came back positive. HEOC also said that a total of 149 test samples were taken yesterday and that their results would be confirmed later today.

Yesterday 17 people had tested positive for COVID-19 from the same resort.

HEOC had said the positive individuals include high-risk patients and that HPA was now working to transfer these individuals to nearby COVID-19 facilities.

HEOC also a team from Dhaalu Atoll Hospital has been mobilized to conduct contact tracing and take samples and that the resort had been under lockdown since yesterday with entry and exit banned.

It also said tourists on the resort can only depart from the island if they are ruled out as a contact or once they present a negative PCR test.

This comes after a 60-year-old local man who tested positive for COVID-19 from that resort succumbed to the illness yesterday while under treatment at Dhaalu Atoll Hospital.