Male: Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has announced that from Wednesday onwards, congregational prayers in the mosques of the capital Male’ region will be resumed.

It has been more than three months since the congregational prayers in the mosques of the greater Male’ area has been banned temporarily, following the declaration of a public health emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later the mosques closed its doors for prayers completely after a lockdown was imposed on Male’.

In a tweet published by President Solih stated that the works of the multi-agency response office, National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) that has been formed to combat the pandemic has come to conclusion and the Maldives is now moving to a new phase. Effective from Wednesday the government offices will be reopened.

Cafés and restaurants will revert to their normal undertakings such as open for dine-in services on Wednesday as announced by the President. Currently, only takeaway or delivery services are allowed for catering businesses.

President Solih has acclaimed and expressed gratitude for the health officers, state employees, and volunteers who worked in the NEOC for the past three or more months.

Schools will resume studies in the islands that are unaffected by COVID-19 on Wednesday. Studies will resume in the Male’ region only for grades 9. All venues will be reopened after following the ‘new normal’ protocols. In that regard, the public and employees are requested to wear masks, keep the practice of social distancing and handwashing arrangements must be in place.

While it has been more than 100 days since the detection of the first case of COVID-19 in the Maldives, two weeks have passed after the state has started to ease the lockdown measures in phases. The number of positive cases is getting lesser day-by-day even after the relief of lockdown measures. Currently, a maximum of 22 cases is the daily average positive cases despite testing 800 samples daily.

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