Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$ 25 million concessional loan and a US$ 25 million grant to help the Maldives government to fund its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to ADB, the funds will help implement the government’s COVID-19 health response measures through actions, such as setting up COVID-19 testing facilities in 5 regional hospitals across 5 zones, scaling up of testing capacity to 800 tests per day, providing at least 400 isolation beds in separate wards for men and women, and at least 200 critical care beds for COVID-19 treatment.

ADB said the bank is providing a $500,000 grant for technical assistance to support the implementation of the project and to help build the government’s capacity in monitoring and evaluating the activities.

The Maldives government is carrying out several efforts to secure grants and other forms of support to enhance its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the government has announced that US$ 300 million has been secured to aid its efforts, central bank Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) said only the funds granted by International Monetary Fund (IMF) and a currency swap with India have entered the state treasury thus far.

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