DUBAI: Dubai police have raided two illegal gatherings that breached COVID-19 social distancing laws and fined the organizers and attendees thousands of dollars.
Video footage released by the Dubai government shows the two parties, one in the desert at an undisclosed location, the other in a house and officials carried out the operations.
The organizers of the gatherings were each fined $13,615, while all attendees were fined $4,000.
In a tweet Dubai Police said it received around “1,000 reports from the public on violations related to the COVID-19 precautionary measures.”
These complaints are filed through Dubai Police’s Call Centre (901) and the ‘Police Eye’ service of the Dubai Police app.
The UAE has seen a rise in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, with daily cases at one point close to crossing 4,000.
Meanwhile the country continues on its nationwide vaccination campaign, which aims to inoculate half the population by April.
Health authorities reported 2,798 new cases on Monday, bringing the country’s overall number of known infections since the start of the pandemic to 329,293.
