The UK's Coronavirus testing and tracing regime, which is still failing to track a quarter of patients who have tested positive, has cost £10bn so far.
The figure was revealed in yesterday's 'Mini-Budget', which said "the government’s Test, Trace, Contain and Enable programme" - but gave no breakdown.
A further £15bn was spent on personal protective equipment for frontline staff - again with no breakdown.
The Government had announced that Britain would have a "world-beating" test-track-trace system up and running by June 1 - but weeks later it is still failing to hit targets.
Experts have warned it must catch at least 80 per cent of infections to ensure the spread of the virus is contained.
A total of 27,125 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in England had their case transferred to the NHS Test and Trace contact tracing system during the first four weeks of its operation, according to figures from the Department of Health & Social Care.
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Of this total, 20,039 people (74%) were reached and asked to provide details of recent contacts, while 6,245 people (23%) were not reached.
A further 841 people (3%) could not be reached because their communication details had not been provided.
Matthew Lesh, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute, told the Telegraph the money spent is "astonishing".
Baroness Dido Harding, who is responsible for the programme, said this week it is "not far away" from hitting expected targets.
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A Treasury report revealed on Wednesday the full extent of Government expenditure since the start of the pandemic in March - with a whopping £160 billion allocated in total.
The sum is almost £30 billion more than the latest estimate from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) of £133 billion.
Health services have been approved £32billion of funding, including £15 billion for PPE procurement for frontline staff.
And more than £1 billion has been allocated to procure additional ventilators.
It also includes employment support worth £69 billion, business support worth £30 billion and some £50 billion for public service spending, funding for charities and support for vulnerable people.
The total tax deferrals and approved loans stands at almost £123 billion.
It comes after Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a sweeping package of measures to aid the country's economic recovery.
Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, said: "[Wednesday's] Budget in-all-but-name was a £30 billion top-up to a pandemic response that is approaching 10% of GDP and will push borrowing to around £350 billion this year."
The Institute for Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson said:
"More support may well need to be announced in the autumn when we know more about the path of the virus and of the economy."