Coronavirus in India: Centre sanctions Rs 15,000 crore to fight Covid-19 pandemic

The Central government on Thursday authorized Rs 15,000 crore to reinforce the fight in opposition to the coronavirus.

The total sum has been released towards the 'India Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package'.

From the total amount, Rs 7,774 crore will be utilized for Emergency Response and the rest will be for medium-term support for a span of 1 to 4 years. It will be put forward under a ‘mission mode’ approach.

The main objective of the package is to capitalize dedicated treatment facilities, centralised procurement of necessary medical paraphernalia, and medicine needed for treatment of infected patient.

"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," the government release said.

The emergency amount will also be put to use to train medical and paramedical manpower resources at a time when India needs more medical professionals as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"The major share of the expenditure will be used for mounting robust emergency response, strengthening national and state health systems followed by strengthening pandemic research and multi-sector national institutions and platforms," it added.

Earlier, the government had announced a relief package of Rs 1.7 lakh crore to lend a hand to citizens most influenced by the Sars-CoV-2 outbreak. In the meantime, India has also commenced rigorous testing and a total of 223 labs are taking part in the process.

Since Wednesday, data on Ministry of Health’s website puts India’s coronavirus tally at 5,865 with 169 deaths and 478 recoveries or discharged.

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