Over 7,000 individuals have been fined and Maldives Police Service (MPS) has arrested over 400 individuals for breaching the lockdown order, thus far.

The authority’s statistics revealed that a total of 7,151 have been fined thus far for violating the locdown order, out of which 6,320 are from Malé, 721 are from Hulhumalé and 110 are from Villimalé.

With this development, the fines imposed thus far have surpassed MVR seven million.

Further, while the number of arrests made thus far has risen to 405, 363 of them are from Malé, 39 from Hulhumalé and three from Villimalé.

Police took action on 197 lockdown violations recorded on Thursday alone.

According to the authority’s daily publication of lockdown violations, police officers patrolling the streets of the Greater Malé Region on Thursday imposed fines on 176 individuals, out of which 167 are from Malé, eight from Hulhumalé and one from Villimalé.

Out of the 21 individuals arrested on Thursday, one is from Hulhumalé and the rest were arrested from Malé.

The authorities began implementing the lockdown easing plan on May 29, and it is currently in phase one.

Under the orders of the Director General of Public Health, first time violators of the lockdown will be fined MVR 1,000 fines and repeat offenders will be arrested under Article 533 (a) of the Penal Code.

Since the Maldives capital Malé City was locked down on April 15 following the detection of the first ever Covid-19 community transmission, police had been issuing daily permits for individuals to go out for essential supplies. Authorities continue to issue permits, to three individuals from each households, even now.