The Maldives government's efforts to curb the rapid spread of the new coronavirus has cost the archipelago over MVR800 million thus far, official figures have shown.
The weekly financials published the Finance Ministry showed that the government spending on COVID-19 had crossed MVR 813 million as of Monday.
The expenditure includes new infrastructure, procurement and to isolate hundreds of people in quarantine facilities. The figure is over MVR200 million higher than last week.
Similar to last week, the majority of the funds were allocated for the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) - the multi-agency task force tackling the outbreak in the island nation.
The government has cut down the spending on other areas and has concentrated on spending funds for containing the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in the Maldives. Finance Ministry had stated that if the spread of the virus prolongs, the government expenditure on the pandemic could cross over into billions. As a precautionary measure for such a situation, the Finance Ministry has applied for an overdraw of MVR 4 million from the Central Bank, MMA.
Health officials active in collectiing random samples to understand the extent of the spread on COVID-19 within the community
