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Police arrest employee at Adhaaran Prestige Vaadhoo Resort over arson threat

Ali Shareef
26 March 2020, MVT 17:17
Maldives Police Services (MPS) arrested a staff at Adhaaran Prestige Vaadhoo Resort for threatening to damage resort property. PHOTO: NISHAN ALI
Ali Shareef
26 March 2020, MVT 17:17

Maldives Police Services (MPS) on Wednesday arrested an employee at Adhaaran Prestige Vaadhoo Resort for threatening to deliberately set the resort property on fire.

Police confirmed the person apprehended was a 40-year-old Maldivian male. The magistrate court in Maafushi remanded him for a period of 15 days.

According to police, the individual wished to seek medical services outside of the resort. The altercation took place when the resort management attempted to facilitate his request by contacting the Health Protection Authority (HPA), police added.

The police have since launched an investigation into the matter.

Health Protection Agency (HPA) banned all travel between resorts and inhabited islands for a 14-day period in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The ban was implemented under the state of public health emergency declared in Maldives on March 12, on the order of Director General of Public Health Maimoona Aboobakuru.

Since, four individuals have been arrested for defying the orders and breaking the travel ban.

Maldives, like many other countries, has moved to quarantine a number of areas with suspected cases, isolating suspected and confirmed cases alike. However, despite significant public pressure to do so, and although all movement from resorts to islands is now restricted, the country is yet to issue a lockdown blocking all incoming travel from other countries.

As such, resort employees currently face the highest risk of exposure to the virus.

Maldives now has 13 confirmed and five active cases of COVID-19, with eight recoveries. So far, only tourists and resort employees have confirmed infections in Maldives with no record of local transmissions within the country. The first Maldivian tested positive for the virus in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The World Health Organization has classified the spread of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The novel coronavirus has infected more than 471,400 and claimed over 21,200 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 114,600 have recovered.

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