Covid-19: MVR 169.98 million issued in allowances to frontliners

The Ministry of Finance has issued a total of MVR 169.98 million in allowances for frontline workers exposed to varying levels of risk in the Maldives Covid-19 response efforts.

The Finance Ministry revealed that by July 27, the funds disbursed to frontliners topped MVR 169.98 million.

The allowances were issued to 12,731 frontline workers.

The allowances are disbursed in three main categories; the first one comprises of high-risk workers who are required to come into direct contact with Covid-19 patients. Coming at second, medium-risk workers are those that require to work with high-risk workers but do not come into direct contact with Covid-19 patients. The third category, the low-risk category, is for workers of the Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC) who undertake more than six-hour shifts per day.

A MVR 500 allowance is given to high-risk workers on a daily basis and MVR 250 is allocated for the second category workers per day. Workers under the third category are entitled to MVR 200 allowances per day.

Frontliners have been critical in the Covid-19 response efforts in safeguarding the country’s residents from the virus and their work has been undertaken very “diligently” with “great care”. These doctors, nurses, lab technicians and other frontliners are exposed to unprecedented risk since the virus was discovered in Maldives on 7 March 2020.

Earlier, Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer noted that allowances are being disbursed under an established system and that they are being paid with “proper documentation and authorization needed for audits and internal control, promoting accountability and due process.”

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih announced the decision to disburse allowances to frontline workers tirelessly working in the country’s Covid-9 response efforts, on 7 May 2020.