Health Emergency Operations Center Spokesperson Dr. Fathimath Nazla Rafeeq says Health Protection Agency HPA had inspected 189 establishments on Saturday and closed down 40 of them.

Speaking at the latest HEOC news briefing, Dr. Nazla said the establishments ordered to close include 16 café’/ restaurants, 14 shops, 9 Salon/barber shops, and 1 market.

She also said at the beginning of the inspection most of the establishments inspected failed to adhere to the guidelines set by HPA to quell the COVID-19 pandemic but now more and more establishments are following these rules.

HPA has inspected a total of 375 establishments in the last four days since last Wednesday and have shut down 120 of those for failing to implement the guidelines set by HPA to further quell the COVID-19 pandemic that is rampant in the capital Male’ City.

HPA had reported that out of the 156 cases of COVID-19 reported in the country yesterday, 154 were confirmed from the greater Male’ area of Male’, Hulhumale’ and Villimale.

The country has recorded a total of 3949 cases of COVID-19 since its first case back in March.