COVID-19 pandemic in the Maldives
The virus was confirmed to have spread to Maldives on 7 March 2020 from a 69-year-old Italian tourist who had returned to Italy after spending holidays in Kuredu Resort & Spa.[8] The Maldivian government plans to relocate 3,000 Bangladeshi foreign workers to other islands in order to enable social distancing.[9] As of May 24, 2021, Maldives had the world's fastest-growing COVID-19 epidemic, with the highest number of infections per million people over the prior 7 and 14 days, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan, Hubei, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.[60] Migrant workers in Maldives have been reported to face harsh treatment from their employers, such as wage theft, unsafe living and working conditions, passport confiscation, and deceptive recruitment practices.