The Minister of Tourism, Ali Waheed, and the Minister of Health, Abdulla Ameen, has held a Joint Press Conference today to announce that following deliberation on the rapidly escalating state of the global COVID-19 emergency, the Maldives will adopt additional border control measures as a supplementary safeguard.
Under the new measures being implemented, the Maldives will restrict the entry of all persons, regardless of nationality, who have Italy as their port of embarkation or have transited through Italy. These new measures will be effective from 0000hrs on 8th March 2020. Minister Waheed further stressed that these additional border control measures are being taken as a matter of precaution to public health and safety, and are temporary in nature.
The Government had previously taken border control measures by temporarily suspending all tourist arrivals from China, Iran and from parts of South Korea.
European countries are on high alert as COVID-19 is spreading rapidly across the region. Italy recorded the highest number of COVID-19 infections, followed by France and Germany.
