Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu on Tuesday said all the 26 deputy commissioners (DCs) of the state have been provided funds to tackle the current situation arising out of the COVID19 pandemic.
Chief minister Khandu said each of the deputy commissioners has been provided Rs. 12 lakh from the state disaster response fund (SDRF) totaling Rs 3.12 crore to deal with the pandemic.
A separate fund of Rs. 1.30 crore has been released from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) to all the district superintendents of police (SPs) to tackle COVID19 pandemic, Khandu said in a statement.
In order to empower the district administrations to fight against the Coronavirus (COVID19) pandemic, the funds under Mukhya Mantri Rogi Kalyan Kosh (MMRKK) of about Rs 15 crore have been released to all 26 districts in Arunachal Pradesh.
The guidelines of the MMRKK have been relaxed to the extent that 80 per cent of funds at the disposal of the districts can be used for the procurement of medicines, consumables and equipment.
The remaining 20 pc would be utilised for conducting health camps and engaging doctors/retired doctors/paramedics/retired paramedics/contingency staff for the next three months period.
Meanwhile, the state government in order to strengthen the public health system and ensure concrete preparedness against COVID 19 has appealed to the retired health professionals to volunteer for reserve staff to supplement the current human resources and staffing shortages in the state.
The interested health professionals have been requested to contact the director of health services at Naharlagun.
With the steep rise in the number of COVID19 infection cases everywhere, proper precautionary measures have been put in place in the state.
The Frontline Response Team deployed all over the state is dealing with COVID19 suspects for which PPEs have been supplied.
A total of 10,000 N-95 masks from HLL, 300 VTMs from ICMR and 30 Thermal scanners reached the state on and distribution is underway.
In order to meet up the shortage of medical equipment due to the lockdown, a special chartered Cargo flight is being arranged by the state government from New Delhi to Guwahati on Wednesday to ferry essential medical equipment like surgical masks, PPEs with all accessories and other stuff for the state.
Medical items for sanitisation have also been ferried to the state.
State-run helicopters have been put into service to deliver all essential ration commodities to people living in far-flung areas that are not connected by roads.
First such helicopter sortie delivered essential commodities in Vijaynagar area on Tuesday and another five sorties have been planned for the week.
As preparedness measures, ICU with ventilators has been set up in TRIHMS.
Isolation wards and quarantine rooms have been identified in all the districts besides helpline and control room working round the clock, said the chief minister in his statement.