The Health Protection Agency (HPA) on Friday temporarily shut down 15 more business establishments that breached its safety guidelines.

On Friday, a total of 111 business establishments were inspected out of which action was taken on 15, including three salons and barber shops, six shops and six cafés and restaurants.

A spike in Covid-19 cases of recent provoked a region-wide mass public health inspection programme as part of which the authority has inspected a total of 165 business establishments have been inspected from the start of the month up until Saturday.

The programme was launched on July 29 and is the second one to have been launched within a month.

The mass public health inspection revolves around ensuring adherence to Covid-19 safety guidelines at cafés, restaurants, gyms and fitness centers, salons as well as markets which were opened for services after the initiation of the third phase of the lockdown ease plan on July 1.

Guidelines to be followed by each of the establishments after having granted approval to reopen them, were publicized in the government gazette, some of which include providing sanitizers, enforcing the use of face masks as well as ensuring social distancing measures are in place.

The inspection work is being carried out in collaboration with the Maldives National Defense Force (MNDF), Malé City council, Ministry of Economic Development, Maldives Police Service (MPS), Maldivian Red Crescent (MRC), Housing Development Corporation and Waste Management Corporation (WAMCO).