Upon the discovery of the new strain of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom, the Maldives has decided to make home quarantine mandatory for all Maldivians who either come from the UK  or have a stopover, lasting more than 12 hours, there, Sun News reported.

The Maldives government took the decision on Saturday and it will come into effect from Sunday. The new mutant of COVID-19 is a super spreader with 70 percent more contagious.

The Maldives’s Health Protection Agency (HPA) announced measures to mitigate the spread of the new strain in the Maldives. All travelers from the UK will now require to submit a negative RT-PCR test, taken within 96 hrs of their arrival.

Upon arrival, all Maldivians will have to go for 10 days home quarantine. On the fifth and tenth day, authorities will conduct RT PCR tests on them.

The discovery of the new mutant virus in the UK prompted many nations to ban flights from the UK. The Maldives also requires to take enough measures, as foreigners constitute more than one-third of total positive cases in the country.

Since March, the Maldives detected around 13,618 total positives cases while the active cases remain just 513.