From passports to driving tests, Covid-19's impact on public services will continue to be felt

Public services have been impacted hard by the pandemic from the outbreak of Covid-19

While questions have been raised about the status of staff, the Passport Office says that they have been busy handling queries from the public and assisting in consular cases. File picture. 

In 2019, the Passport Office handled a total of over 957,000 applications, issuing 935,000 books and cards.

So far in 2021, it has processed little more than 20,000 "simple adult renewals", in the region 2,000 urgent and around 200 emergency applications.