Centre releases Rs 890. 32 crore as second installment of COVID-19 financial package to States, UTs

The Central Government on Thursday released Rs 890.32 crores as the second installment of the COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package to 22 States and Union Territories (UTs).

The COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in March this year. The amount of financial assistance is based on the COVID-19 caseload in various States/UTs.

These include Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Sikkim.

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"As part of this package, States/UTs have been strengthened with 5,80,342 isolation beds, 1,36,068 oxygen supported beds and 31,255 ICU beds. Also, 86,88,357 testing kits and 79,88,366 Vial Transport Media (VTM) have been procured by them. As many as 96,557 human resources have been added in the States/UTs and incentive has been given to 6,65,799 human resource. The package has aided provision of mobility support to 11,821 staff," the health ministry said in a statement.

According to the health ministry, this financial aid, as part of the second instalment, will be used for strengthening of public health infrastructure for testing including procurement and installation of RT-PCR machines, RNA extraction kits, TRUENAT and CBNAAT machines.

It will also help in the development of ICU beds, the installation of oxygen generators, cryogenic oxygen tanks, and medical gas pipelines in hospitals. The fund will also help to engage, train, and for capacity building of healthcare workforce and volunteers such as ASHAs, on COVID duties,.

The first instalment of Rs 3,000 crores was released in April 2020 to all States/UTs to aid and enable them to ramp up testing facilities, augment hospital infrastructure, conduct surveillance activities along with procurement of essential equipment, drugs, and other supplies.

(ANI)

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