Maldives Police Service (MPS) took action on 98 individuals for breaching the lockdown imposed across the Greater Malé Region, on Saturday.

This was revealed by the authority’s daily publications of the statistics for lockdown violations, on Sunday morning.

As such, MPS revealed that the number of lockdown violations recorded on Saturday was less in comparison to the lockdown violations on Friday, which was at 137.

Out of the 98 violations, 93 individuals were fined on Saturday whereas the amount was at 128 on Friday.

Five individuals were taken into police custody on Saturday, while nine individuals were arrested the previous day.

This pushes the total number of individuals under police custody for violating the lockdown orders, to 224.

With this, the total number of individuals fined for violating the lockdown order has risen to 4,118 and the fines have reached over MVR four million.

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

Authorities have continuously been pushing the public to obey guidelines set by the HPA for the safety and security of the community, stressing that the entire community is put at risk of contracting the virus due to a number of individuals who do not follow instructions set by the authorities for the safety of the community.

The lockdown was initially set to end of Thursday, however, authorities pushed it to another fortnight on Wednesday and will remain in effect until May 28.