The Civil Court has issued an order on Maldivian parents who obstructed police orders, to provide samples of their infant to the authorities for Covid-19 testing.

The court revealed on Thursday, that the parents had refused to provide samples when authorities attempted to collect samples from their child for testing on Wednesday. As such, the court has ordered them to cooperate with the authorities and allow the officials to take the child’s samples. It has been reported that the child is under one year of age.

The court revealed that they have issued an order enforcing Maldives Police Service (MPS) and relevant authorities to take the child’s samples, as mandated under the Director General of Public Health, Maimoona Aboobakuru’s orders.

Due to confidentiality, these court orders are not publicized.

This comes at a time the Civil Court has been issuing similar orders for those who refuse to be taken into quarantine. As such, similar orders were issued on four individuals on Wednesday night and earlier, on two more Maldivian nationals.

Further, the court has been ordering authorities to quarantine individuals who refuse to be taken into quarantine as well.

Refusing to be taken into quarantine is described as a violation of the Public Health Act of the country and courts are mandated to release orders to do the needful in such cases. The act also mandates all individuals to share accurate information during a State of Public Health Emergency, which was declared across Maldives on March 12 and extended until May 30, on Thursday.

The Greater Malé Region has been locked down following the discovery of the first Covid-19 community transmission on April 15. Other measures taken under this include banning travel between inhabited islands. Positive cases have been spiking in the region, as well as outlying islands.

Following this, a number of islands have been brought under monitoring and a number of individuals are also being taken into quarantine under the contact tracing process.