True Heroes: Frontline Workers During COVID-19

Laboratory Technician at IGMH gets to work, testing various samples. Many like him, work in continuous shifts, without an adequate break, to ensure health facilities run smoothly and that treatment can be given as soon as possible to those requiring it. PHOTO: NISHAN ALI / MIHAARU

Employees working for Tree Top Hospital note down information of persons requiring aid and treatment during this time, at great risk to their own person. PHOTO: TREE TOP HOSPITAL

Maldives Police, suited up for protection, facilitate the transport of people being repatriated from Trivandrum, India to the various quarantine centres located across the archipelago. They are required to stay 14-days before they will be allowed to return to their island of residence. PHOTO: POLICE MEDIA

Police Officers distribute food and other essential supplies to people that have been rendered homeless or find themselves stranded in Male due to the local travel bans. PHOTO: POLICE MEDIA

Gas companies have also continued their efforts, albeit now dressed with protection included, to deliver cooking fuel to families on a daily basis, ensuring people are able to prepare their food. PHOTO: VILLA GAS

Nurses at Addu Equatorial Hospital send a small message to the citizens of Maldives. Heavily involved in the caretaking of patients, nurses face a great risk of infection, but work tirelessly to serve the needs of people that are suffering, every day. PHOTO: AEH / TWITTER

Foreign ministry employees along with aviation teams, collaborate with their counterparts in Bangladesh to repatriate Maldivians stranded in the country while also bringing in a team of medical experts to assist with Maldives' efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. PHOTO: MFA

Persons covered in protective gear, entering local supermarket 'VB Mart' to disinfect and clean the property. PHOTO: MIHAARU

Two laboratory technicians from IGMH working to conduct tests. PHOTO: IGMH

MNDF officers work to unload good items sent to the Maldives, for distribution across the country. PHOTO: MNDF

Dr Moosa Murad is another key face at NEOC's daily held press briefings. Among many important information and announcements, he also delivered the optimistic news that the first Maldivian to have tested positive for COVID-19 had recovered. PHOTO: NEOC / HPA

Blood donation in the time of COVID-19, taking place at the Addu Equatorial Hospital. With people encouraged to stay indoors, there has been a greater need for blood, to use as transfusion for patients in need. PHOTO: AEH

STO Employees across the country busy themselves in ensuring deliveries of staple foods are brought and distributed amongst islands in every island, atoll of Maldves. PHOTO: STO

Assistant Commissioner of Police Naveen Ismail is a weekly guest, sometimes seen more often, at the daily press briefings held at NEOC. He has also received much praise for his reassuring manner, as he updates people on crime statistics as well as hears out concerns raised by journalists. PHOTO: POLICE / NEOC

Youth Ministry's Volunteers working to distribute and deliver 'dates' to people in need, a traditional treat with which many to choose break their fast during Ramadan. PHOTO: MAHLOOF / TWITTER

Employees of Maldives Ports Limited clearing out food cargo for deliveries throughout the city as well as for shipments yet to be transported across various atolls. PHOTO: MPL

Police Officers, during a break between deliveries and patrols, find time to donate blood for Thalassemia patients in serious need of transfusions and for blood bank to use in emergency situations. PHOTO: MIHAARU

Dr Ali Latheef is also a common visitor on the panel of the daily press briefings held by NEOC. Reflecting on the situation experienced in the US and in Italy, the doctor cautioned Maldivians to take the issue of COVID-19 seriously, before community spread had even been detected. PHOTO: NEOC / HPA

Dr Ibrahim Afzal, busts myths while disseminating key information to press and public, on the panel of the NEOC-hosted daily news briefing. PHOTO: NEOC / HPA

WAMCO's waste collectors are essential in ensuring possible contaminants are removed from the city's streets, and by ensuring that our rubbish is taken away, are key to maintaining a hygienic environment that does not welcome disease of any nature. PHOTO: AHMED AWSHAN ILYAS / MIHAARU

A WAMCO worker, gloved and masked to the hilt, ensures the roads and streets of Male' are kept as free of rubbish that may act as vectors for the spread of different diseases and removes as many potential contaminants as possible, at the risk own her own health. PHOTO: AHMED AWSHYN ILYAS / MIHAARU

An MNDF Firefighter observes and directs the cleansing of the streets of Male'. The event took place prior to the first incidence of a person within the city's own community confirming positive for COVID-19. PHOTO: AHMED AWSHAN ILYAS / MIHAARU

A collaborative effort led by Male' City Mayor Shifa Mohamed, utilizing personnel from Housing Ministry, MNDF and the Council, to clean and disinfect the streets of Male'. The event took place prior to the first incidence of a person within the city's own community confirming positive for COVID-19. PHOTO: AHMED AWSHAN ILYAS / MIHAARU

Maldivian Red Crescent (MRC) staff and volunteers working with health care workers to mitigate the spread of COVID19 in Maldives. The NGO confirmed having provided psychosocial support to 916 individuals, as part of its response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Secretary-General Fathimath Himya revealed that their call centre was receiving an average of between 60 and 100 per day. PHOTO: MALDIVIAN RED CRESCENT

Technical Advisory Group (TAG)'s Dr Nazla Mustafa is another familiar face to the press and the public, making regular appears at the NEOC- hosted daily briefings. On April 21, she made the grim announcement that the team believed community spread had begun three weeks prior. PHOTO: NISHAN ALI / MIHAARU

Dr Nazla Rafeeq, senior medical officer at HPA, addresses the press regularly and has been widely praised on social channels for her patient, calm demeanour on/off-camera as well as her grace whilst handling questions as well as complaints presented during the conference. PHOTO: NEOC / HPA

A cashier at a local supermarket in Male', processes the overwhelming amount of orders sent through by a portion of the city's over 100,000 residents, on a daily basis, in addition to answering the numerous complaints and complications that inevitably arise with the sudden change in operation. PHOTO: AHMED AWSHAN ILYAS / MIHAARU

Employees of local delivery service 'Red Box', course through the streets of Male' armed with bags upon bags, each more strained than the next by the weight of all the essential goods ordered by residents in need. PHOTO: AHMED AWSHAN ILYAS / MIHAARU

A worker, clad in gloves and a mask, offloads cases of goods meant to circulate amongst residents of Maldives. Dozens like him work tirelessly in the unforgiving April sun to ensure that other frontline workers, ordinary residents, across the archipelago receive the supplies they need. PHOTO: AHMED AWSHAN ILYAS / MIHAARU

Chucking supplies out of windows - a go-down worker hands down a case of product for delivery. Dozens like him work tirelessly in the unforgiving April sun to ensure that other frontline workers, ordinary residents, across the archipelago receive the supplies they need. PHOTO: AHMED AWSHAN ILYAS / MIHAARU

Limited MNDF Officers head out for deliveries, having collected the orders made by hundreds of citizens throughout capital city Male' which houses 1/3 of the country's population. PHOTO: AHMED AWSHAN ILYAS / MIHAARU

MNDF aids in the delivery of essential goods purchased from the State Trading Organization (STO) to residents in Male City. Delivery has become the most dangerous of gigs in this time, with a number of personnel involved in the process, mostly expatriate workers living in difficult and congested conditions, testing positive post-lockdown. PHOTO: AHMED AWSHAN ILYAS / MIHAARU

A worker, clad in gloves and a mask, handles deliveries of goods meant to circulate amongst residents of Maldives. Dozens like him work tirelessly in the unforgiving April sun to ensure that other frontline workers, ordinary residents, across the archipelago receive the supplies they need. PHOTO: AHMED AWSHAN ILYAS / MIHAARU

Communications Undersecretary at the President's Office, Mabrouq Abdul Azeez, is the state's spokesperson over the COVID19 pandemic and has been hosting national press conferences on a daily basis since the beginning of the outbreak. PHOTO: AHMED AWSHAN ILYAS / MIHAARU

Journalists meet with National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC)'s Technical Advisory Group (TAG) including Dr Ali Latheef, Dr Moosa Hussain, Dr Nazla Mustafa and Dr Muaz Moosa to ensure that information reported is accurate and verified. PHOTO: HPA

Doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals suit up, during a training programme held concerning the critical care of patients found positive for COVID19. PHOTO: NISHAN ALI / MIHAARU