Maldivian healthcare workers’ experience during COVID‑19 pandemic

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) is caused by a new coronavirus reported from Wuhan City, China. On 31st December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) China office was informed of cases of pneumonia of an unknown etiology which was detected in Wuhan city in Hubei Province, central China. By early January 2020, WHO released a statement regarding a novel coronavirus identified in patients admitted with pneumonia. This highly infectious disease spread at an alarming rate in many countries and became a global pandemic. It was declared as a pandemic by the WHO on 12th March 2020. The global pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID‑19) has affected different people in many ways. According to Health Protection Agency (HPA) of the Maldives, the government has been preparing for this pandemic from the 5th of January 2020 when WHO initially announced the outbreak of this deadly disease. Since then the government has taken a range of preventive measures and continues to do it. HPA has been advising people regarding the importance of infection preventive measures at an individual and a community level.