Over MVR one million has been spent to provide assistance to Maldivians stranded abroad amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

At Thursday night's Covid-19 press briefing, National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC)’s spokesperson, Mohamed Mabrook Aziz revealed that a total of MVR 1.89 million has been spent thus far to assist Maldivians stranded abroad.

Responding to a question, Mabrook said that those facing hardships abroad have been asked to inform the foreign ministry through their respective embassies and that authorities have been helping those that have done so.

While authorities had previously facilitated the delivery packages from families of individuals stranded abroad, these packages were distributed by the respective embassies.

Further noting that work is underway to repatriate Maldivians abroad, the spokesperson stressed that such negotiations “take some time” given the various restriction measures in countries as they battle this common enemy as well. He also noted that space availability at quarantine facilities are also taken into account prior to finalizing repatriation exercises.

Highlighting that a number of Maldivians were recently repatriated from India as well, Mabrook said that they are working to bring back Maldivians stuck in other nations as well.

A number of Maldivians have been repatriated from various nations since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and all returnees are quarantined for a 14-day period and tested for the virus before release as part of the work to curb the spread of the disease.

Authorities began this procedure in late March.