Frontline allowance granted to 220 frontliners

Image of front liners in a drill conducted in Male' city Photo: V News

Male’, Maldives – Finance Ministry of Maldives has revealed that 220 front liners have received the allowance dedicated for front liners working against the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the Ministry, the distribution of allowance began on Wednesday and a total of MVR 2.9 Million has been distributed as allowance money to the front liners of the country. The Ministry further revealed that the amount received by each front liner is the total sum of allowance to be received by each front liner from the date of March 7, 2020 until the end of June.

The Ministry also stated that more front liners would be receiving their payments in the upcoming days as the Ministry is working on verifying and approving the payments of those who have not received their allowances.

In an earlier announcement by the Finance Ministry, it was said that allowances would be allocated to the front liners  in three difference stages, the first being those working in the most high risk category. In this category are doctors, nurses, laboratory technologists, those working on collecting samples, transporting positive patients, those who have to enter wards where positive patients are admitted and those working in travel clinics – all of whom which would be highly likely to be in contact with positive patients or those who are likely to be positive. The allowance granted for these health officials is MVR 500 for every day reported to duty.

The second category consists of medium risk front line workers, who although would not be in direct contact with positive patients, would still be working with medical personnel classified in the high risk category. These front liners would be receiving MVR 250 for every day reported to work.

Lastly, the low risk front line workers are classified as those who do not fall into the high or low risk category, but have worked at NEOC for 6 hours a day. These front liners are to be paid MVR 200 per every day reported to work.