Over 400 people have been fined for not wearing face masks, since it was made mandatory as part of the work to control the Covid-19 spread.

At Wednesday night’s Covid-19 briefing, the Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC)’s spokesperson Dr. Nazla Rafeeq announced that a total of 475 individuals had been fined from breaching the mask mandate.

41 individuals were fined on Wednesday, while 94 were let go with a warning.

Further, while a curfew was introduced in the greater Malé region last Tuesday, a total of 311 people have been fined for violating the order. 80 were issued fines on Wednesday alone, while 120 were given a warning.

Authorities were forced to reintroduce a curfew in the capital as the country saw a surge in Covid-19 cases after entering the third phase on lockdown easing in July. Officials said that this was done so as to avoid returning to a state of lockdown.

While the country had less than 1,000 active Covid-19 cases when it entered the third phase, this has since risen to 2,461.