As the COVID-19 pandemic is getting serious in the country the central government has stepped in. After the 1.7 lakh crore financial boost this time it’s the specific announcement for health preparedness. The announcement about the package was made on Thursday.
The package is named ‘India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package‘. The amount would be released in phases and not in a single go. Rs 7,774 crore out of the total amount will be used for emergency response. The rest of the amount will be sued for medium-term support for a period of 1-4 years.
As per the government, the key aim of the package is to fund dedicated treatment facilities, centralized procurement of essential medical equipment, and drugs required for the treatment of infected patients. The money for this would be released in “mission mode”. A notification was also released by the government in this regard.
“These interventions and initiatives would be implemented under the overall umbrella of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This will allow for rapidly ramping up the number of coronavirus testing facilities, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Isolation Beds, ICU beds, ventilators, and other essential equipment“, read the notification.
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The amount under the package would also be used for training medical and paramedical manpower. However, the bulk of the finances would be dedicated at:
- For mounting robust emergency response
- Strengthening national and state health systems
- Strengthening pandemic research and
- Strengthening multi-sector national institutions and platforms
As per the latest data, India has so far recorded over 6,400 cases of COVID-19. Around 590 have recovered while 186 deaths have been reported at the time of writing this. Globally the number of cases has crossed 14 lakhs.
