The National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC) has revealed that privately-run ADK Hospital charges MVR 675 per COVID-19 test.
The hospital acquired testing equipment and commenced testing nearly a week ago. The hospital has previously informed that it has the capacity to test upto 500 samples every day. The media has been repeatedly seeking information on the charges being billed by the hospital for testing services.
Speaking at Tuesday night's daily press conference, NEOC's spokesperson Mohamed Mabrook Azeez said ADK charges MVR 675 per test. If 500 samples are tested per day, the charges would amount to MVR 337,500 every day. However, it is unlikely that 500 samples are being tested at the private hospital every day, as only 819 tests were carried out across the island nation on Tuesday.
Noting that the state-run Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) charges no testing fees, Mabrook said all items necessary for testing are provided to IGMH by the NEOC. The tests carried out at ADK are billed to IGMH, said Mabrook.
The Indian Ocean archipelago has spent MVR 892.3 on COVID-19 related expenses until now. This includes MVR 5.2 million spent by IGMH.
COVID-19 testing is currently carried out at three laboratories. In addition to IGMH and ADK, the police forensic lab also tests up to 145 samples per day.
