Authorities in Panama have ordered police to avoid discriminating against LGBT+ people during the country’s gender-based coronavirus lockdown following an outcry over trans people being detained for going outside on the “wrong” day.

Panama’s Ministry of Public Security said on Twitter late on Monday that it had “instructed the security forces to avoid any type of discrimination against the LGBTI population in restrictions adopted (due to) Covid19”. The Security Ministry did not immediately respond to a Thomson Reuters Foundation request for comment.

Last month Panama ruled that men and women could only leave their homes on separate days to slow the spread of the virus but this left trans people in legal limbo, activists said, with some fined or detained by police.

“The statement ... will be meaningless without an explicit authorization for transgender people to comply with the gendered quarantine in accordance with their gender identity,” said Cristian Gonzalez, a researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW). Read more via Reuters