Maldives Police Service (MPS) took action on 294 lockdown violations on Friday.

In a daily publication to the media, the authority revealed that officers patrolling the locked down Greater Malé Region had imposed fines on a total of 277 individuals on Friday and 17 individuals were taken into police custody.

This is significantly high in comparison to the 197 violations recorded the previous day.

On Friday, police imposed fines on 277 individuals, out of which 256 are from Malé, 18 from Hulhumalé and three from Villimalé.

All 17 arrested on Friday were from the capital city.

The authority’s statistics revealed that a total of 7,675 have been fined thus far for violating the lockdown order, out of which 6,811 are from Malé, 751 are from Hulhumalé and 113 are from Villimalé.

Further, while the number of arrests made thus far has risen to 437, 394 of them are from Malé, 40 from Hulhumalé and three from Villimalé.

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.