Civil Court, on Wednesday night, issued court orders to collect samples from two individuals who refused to undergo testing for COVID-19.
According to the court, two separate orders were issued, requesting the relevant authorities and Maldives Police Service to collect samples from these particular individuals.
Amidst the ongoing pandemic, samples from unwilling persons were previously collected under court orders as well.
Authorities are testing and placing suspected cases of the virus in quarantine in an attempt to contain the COVID-19 outbreak in Maldives. The law accords the Director General of Public Health the authority to conduct testing on those who refuse to allows Health Protection Agency (HPA) to collect their samples.
Maldives presently records a total of 2,260 confirmed cases, out of which 418 are active cases of COVID-19. Thus far, the country records 1,839 recoveries and eight fatalities.
As one of the most densely populated cities in the world, Maldives' capital Malé recorded a significant increase in COVID-19 cases in the first weeks following the first confirmed local transmission on April 15.
However, the number of recoveries have continued to rise, with roughly 81 percent of patients now recovered.
On March 12, WHO classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. To date, the new strain of novel coronavirus has infected over 9.5 million people and claimed over 485,000 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 5.1 million people have recovered.
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