President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has conceded that the current devastating spread of the pandemic was caused by the eases given by authorities in April.
Speaking to the media, President Solih said in April authorities granted much ease including a lift on travel restrictions, and that this caused the number of pandemic cases to increase in the Atolls.
He said that in the Greater Male' Area, the eases gave the people the chance to meet one another and mingle.
This comes as the country fights its most devastating COVID-19 wave yet with the country's precarious healthcare system now on the verge of collapse.
When the new year began, the daily COVID-19 numbers were considerably low but now the daily cases average at 1000 with the Health Protection Agency HPA confirming more than 7,500 new cases of the pandemic in the last five days.
A total of 71 individuals have died from the pandemic this month taking the death toll to 144 in the country since April 2020.
Authorities are struggling to control the pandemic across the country as more than 70 islands remain under monitoring at the moment. HPA had announced yesterday that a curfew would be imposed in all the islands under monitoring effective today.
