Police issue 196 Public Health Infringement Notices on Friday and Saturday

The Fiji Police Force says people are continuing to not take COVID safe measures seriously and this is being reflected by the number of Public Health Infringement Notices issued on Friday and Saturday.

A notice was issued for breach of isolation in the Eastern Division.

Police say failure to wear a face mask in a public place accounted for 161 of the overall 196 notices issued for the two days.

The Southern Division recorded the highest number of bookings with 119 cases.

Both the Central and Eastern Divisions recorded 14 reports, 11 cases were recorded in the West while officers from the Police Special Response Unit recorded 3 bookings.

26 notices were issued for failure to wear a mask in a public service vehicle where the Southern Division recorded 21 reports and the Central Division recorded 5.

6 notices were also issued for breach of curfew, 2 PSV drivers were booked for failing to comply with the 70% passenger capacity regulation.

Police are urging Fijians to comply with COVID safe measures at all times.

Fixed penalties are in place for breaching COVID-19 related regulations and a person who will be issued the infringement notice will have to pay the fixed penalty or elect to dispute in court within 90 days.

The penalty for failure to comply with the curfew order is $30, the penalty for failure to wear a face-covering in a public place is $20, the penalty for failure to wear a face-covering in a public service vehicle is $40, the penalty for failure of being 2 metres away from any other person in a queue is $20, the penalty for failure to comply with an order in relation to any gathering is $100, the penalty for failure to comply with an order in relation to entering or leaving a containment zone or lockdown zone is $75, the penalty for failure to comply with an order in relation to travel withing a containment zone is $75, and the penalty for failure to comply with an order in relation to consumption of kava and liquor is $50.

The penalty for failure to limit customer capacity at customer-facing services is $200 and the penalty for failure to limit passenger capacity in public service vehicles is $200.

If an individual to whom an infringement notice has been issued refuses to immediately comply with the order, he or she commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $10,000 or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 5 years, or both.