Speaking at a media conference Monday night, Malone said considerations are being made for stiffer penalties because of reports of protocol breaches.

The Health Minister said he believes the increase of the fine from the maximum $1,000 — as stipulated in the COVID-19 Control and Suppression (Entry of Persons) Regulations, 2020 — would further act as a deterrence to persons who intend to purposely breach the protocols.

“I want to make some specific warnings about it. Persons who have been under the requirement to quarantine, they must adhere to this. We are getting reports of persons who have violated some of this before, we will find them and we will fine them because it is important that you adhere to all of the protocols,” the minister stated.

“We have fines ready to be handed out for those persons who are intent on breaking the law. We see in some places it is up to $5,000 and we might be able to move it from the $1,000 to the $5,000 to show that we’re serious because it’s best that we make the rough and tough decisions now so that we don’t have to go on the economic challenges if this was to spiral out of control,” he added.

Issues with tracking bracelets

Malone also said some of the GPS tracking bracelets have been experiencing technical problems.

“Most of them are working but we have some that have not been efficient as we would have liked them to be, so temporary measures are being taken,” he said.

“The bracelets are there for a specific purpose. We have measures that we have taken in terms of being able to more properly track and trace these persons who are intent on violating the particular measures that are being put in place and we must not allow this to happen,” he further stated.

Malone also said that another level of security is expected to be available for utilisation between today Tuesday and Wednesday.