COVID-19 cases in Maldives rise to 14

ANKARA

The Maldives on Friday announced that its coronavirus cases rose to 14, local media reported.

The country's Health Minister Abdulla Ameen said a Maldivian, 38, tested positive for COVID-19, raising the total number of cases to 14, the daily Sun reported.

The infected Maldivian national had traveled to the U.K, and returned to his home country on March 21.

He had been placed under quarantine, and later began to show symptoms of the infection on March 25.

The Maldives, a country of nearly half a million of population, has other 13 cases of coronavirus, but all of them are foreigners, while nine have fully recovered.

Meanwhile, China's envoy to the Maldives Ambassador Zhang Lizhon, announced on his Twitter handle that Beijing sent its first batch of "emergency medical supplies" to the island nation today.

After first appearing in Wuhan, China, last December, the novel coronavirus has spread to at least 176 countries and territories. The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a pandemic.

According to data compiled by the U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University, more than 549,600 cases have been reported worldwide since last December, with the death toll above 24,800, and over 127,500 recoveries.