The central government on Thursday has released Rs 890.32 crore as the second installment of the COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package to 22 States and Union Territories.
Six northeastern states including Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim are among other 16 beneficiaries to get the central assistance.
The other states and UTs are Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu.
The amount of the financial assistance is based on the COVID-19 case load in these States and UTs.
Officials said that as part of the ‘Whole of Government’ approach where the Centre is leading the COVID-19 response and management, and supporting the States and UTs through technical and financial resources, the COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package was announced by the Prime Minister.
The financial aid as part of the second installment will be used for strengthening of public health facilities infrastructure for testing including procurement and installation of RT-PCR machines, RNA extraction kits, TRUNAT & CBNAAT machines and BSL-II cabinets etc.; strengthening of public health facilities infrastructure for treatment and development of ICU beds.
The first installment of Rs 3000 crore was released in April this year to all States and 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.
As part of this package, States and 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 and UTs and incentive has been given to 6, 65,799 HR.
The package has aided provision of mobility support to 11,821 staff, officials said.