- ”India COVID-19 Emergency Response andHealth System Preparedness Package”
- To mount an urgent response for containing the spread of the virus in India,
- Through development of dedicated treatment facilities and setting up laboratories among others.
- While for immediate COVID-19 emergency response,provision of an amount of₹7,774 crore has been kept.
- Meanwhile the rest of the amount will be used for medium-term support for the next 1-4 years.
- These interventions and initiatives would be implemented under the Health Ministry.
- The fund will be utilized in three phases.
- In the first phase, the Health Ministry with the support of all the other ministries, has already undertaken several activities.
- An additional₹3,000 crore under the package has been released to States and Union Territories,for strengthening existing health facilities as Covid-19 dedicated hospitals, dedicated Covid-19 health centres and dedicated care centres for the disease.
- Diagnostic laboratories network has been expanded and our testing capacity is increasing every day.
- Leveraging on the existing multi-disease testing platforms under National TB Elimination Programme, orders for procurement of 13 lakh diagnostic kits have been placed to augment Covid-19 testing.
- All health workers, including community health volunteers (ASHAs) have been covered under the
- ‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package: Insurance Scheme for Health Workers lighting Covid-19’.
- Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), N-95 masks and ventilators, testing kits and drugs for treatment are being procured centrally
- Detailed guidelines, protocols and advisoryfor quarantine, isolation, testing, treatment, disease containment, decontamination, social distancing and surveillance have been issued.
- Hotspots have been identified and appropriate containment strategies are being implemented