Maldives Police Service (MPS) has revealed that over 4,000 individuals have been permitted to return to Malé City, thus far.

Joining a press briefing at the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) on Thursday afternoon, the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Ismail Naveen noted that the total of individuals that have been permitted to travel to the Maldives capital, reached 4,818 by 2pm.

Naveen highlighted that the number of requests has been increasing after Eid-Al-Fitr, celebrated earlier this week and that approvals will be granted under the same protocol that was followed before the lockdown easing began.

As such, the authority will grant permits through the portal established for this purpose and the same procedure will be followed for medical emergencies.

Further, the Assistant Police Commissioner noted the support received from the citizens as well as the patience they have shown over the course of the past few weeks and thanked the people on behalf of all the stakeholder agencies, including the Covid-19 task force.

In this regard, he stressed on the importance of continuous support and cooperation from both the people as well as media personnel in proceeding with the “ease down plan” as well as the measures that need to be followed accordingly.

In addition, Naveen highlighted that all the permits issued to the region’s residents to go out for essentials earlier, are still valid and authorities are working to process the pending applications for permits.

Under the first phase of the “ease down plan”, authorities have urged individuals seeking permits to do so through the city council’s portal, details of which will be publicized on Thursday night. Both social and business permits are to be issued through this portal.

However, permits will not be issued to residents of households under monitoring or quarantine.

The government revealed that individual permits will be allowed for three individuals from each household, under the ease plan.