Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia have been leading the charge against the spread of Covid-19, at least within their borders.
For example, the UAE said as early as November last year that 100 percent of its citizens had received at least one dose of a state-approved vaccine.
Another way of bringing down numbers has been to test for a Covid-19 infection and detect it at the earliest possible stage.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test is one of the most efficient to detect a Covid-19 infection.
The WHO, however, also acknowledges that the test is costlier than other methods of determining a Covid-19 case.
The organization describes it as “a molecular test that detects genetic material,” and hence needs to be run at a molecular laboratory, which leads to the higher cost.
However, because it is more reliable, the PCR test has been at the forefront of checking for Covid-19, whether it is within the borders or at points of entry where people from outside the country come in, like airports.
As a result, a large number of kits of this test has been manufactured and used across the world in general and the GCC in particular.
Here’s a look at how much the GCC countries have spent on the PCR test since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic:
