Maldives Police Service (MPS), on Tuesday, arrested a local who was placed under home-quarantine upon arrival at Hulhudhuffaaru, Raa Atoll, from capital Male', over violating Health Protection Agency (HPA)'s guidelines.
According to police, a 30-year-old man was arrested after being spotted breaching quarantine protocol and roaming around the island.
Local media Mihaaru reported that although the man's quarantine ends on Tuesday, he had repeatedly broken isolation rules during the standard 14-day period he was supposed to stay at home.
Police stated that the man was arrested after he refused to obey HPA's guidelines, even after the island council and police advised him over the breach of quarantine on several occasions.
Following his arrest, the suspect was remanded for a period of 10 days for police to continue investigations.
The most densely populated island in Raa Atoll, Dhuvaafaru was placed under monitoring after three individuals placed under home-quarantine tested positive for COVID-19 after being released from isolation.
According to the authorities, they were released after their first sample tested negative, but were later found positive when tested for the virus again.
The contact tracing process in Dhuvaafaru is currently ongoing to ensure that there is no community spread on the island.
Maldives presently has a total of 2,762 confirmed and 444 active cases of COVID-19. Thus far, the country records 2,290 recoveries and 14 deaths.
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.
After recording low numbers for several weeks, the recent spike of virus cases has reduced the total amount of recovered patients from 86 to 82 percent.
The number of COVID-19 cases increased after the state initiated efforts to steer the country towards a 'new normal' with the phased easing of lockdown restrictions across the Greater Male' Region.
Government offices and businesses including shops, cafe's and restaurants restarted services on July 1 while authorities are prepared to reopen Maldives' borders for tourism on July 15.
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 13.2 million people and claimed over 576,300 lives around the world. However, out of those infected, more than 7.7 million people have recovered.
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