Malawi Law Society (MLS) has said people who are deliberately escaping from Covid-19 quarantine facilities are breaking the law and they can be taken to court to answer charges.

Eight out of seventeen covid-19 patients quarantined at Kameza in Blantyre escaped on Monday night.

Similarly, returnees from South Africa, who were temporarily held at Kamuzu Stadium in Blantyre, awaiting their Covid-19 test outcome, abandoned the place on Wednesday.

MLS president, Counsel Burton Mhango, said there is a law which operates within the prevention of coronavirus and the offence can attract a fine or a prison sentence.

“The rules that were passed by the minister of health under section 21 stipulates that if someone is found contravening the laws that were identified and advised to quarantine then he or she has committed an offence and shall be fined or serve a three months jail sentence,” he said.

Mhango further highlighted that only those who have left the quarantine centers without following proper rules are the ones who can be found on the wrong side of the rule.

However he cited a scenario at Kamuzu stadium in Blantyre, which he said if the reports that those who were quarantined were not provided with necessities are true, then the affected people can use this as a ground to back their decision to leave the place.

Meanwhile, a manhunt for the people who abandoned the quarantine facilities is in progress to avoid further spread of the pandemic which has so far registered more than 100 confirmed cases and three deaths in the country.