Guesthouses in Maldives capital may reopen in November

MALE - Tourist guest houses in the Maldives' capital may reopen in November, local media quoted Minister of Tourism Abdulla Mausoom as saying here Wednesday.

Mausoom told state-owned PSM News that guesthouses in Male could only resume activity with the approval of the Health Protection Authority, which may come by mid-November.

Mausoom has previously stated that keeping new COVID-19 infections below a rate of 5 percent for a period of two weeks was a prerequisite for reopening guesthouses.

A total of 29 guesthouses in the atolls have resumed operations since Oct. 15. Around 19 percent of bed capacity in the tourism sector is from guesthouses.

The Maldives currently has 871 active cases of COVID-19, with 47 patients hospitalized for treatment. A total of 10,652 people have recovered from the virus while 37 have died.