Britain’s government has underwritten 45 billion pounds ($56 billion) of borrowing by businesses hit by the coronavirus and spent more than 27 billion pounds so far to support jobs, Reuters reported quoting finance ministry figures.

Total spending under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which supports 9.4 million jobs and is the costliest government coronavirus measure, rose to 27.4 billion pounds as of July 5 from 25.5 billion pounds a week earlier.