Coronavirus Outbreak in India: Centre Tells States to Release Funds to Set Up New Hospitals, Isolation Wards and Clinical Labs As COVID-19 Cases Rise
The government ordered all the states to deploy fiscals for facilities including hospitals, clinical labs, isolation wards, expanding and upgrading existing facilities to combat the challenge posed by COVID-19.
New Delhi, March 24: The Central government on Tuesday directed all the state governments to release funds for establishing additional medical facilities across the nation amid the rising cases of coronavirus in India. The government ordered all the states to deploy fiscals for facilities including hospitals, clinical labs, isolation wards, expanding and upgrading existing facilities to combat the challenge posed by COVID-19. The Centre stated that the facilities need to be well equipped with ventilators Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), masks and drugs to treat the patients infected with coronavirus. Catch Live Updates of Coronavirus Outbreak Here.
Also, Union Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba wrote to Chief Secretaries of States to earmark hospitals dedicated for coronavirus cases. "All states should immediately identify&earmark hospitals dedicated for management of COVID19 cases&ensure they are fully ready in the event of a further spike in the number of confirmed cases", the letter read.
Take a Look at the tweets:
Government Directive to the States:
In a bid to support unorganized construction workers who sustain their livelihood on daily wages, the government asked all the states and UTs to use Cess fund for their welfare. An advisory issued by the government stated that all State Governments/UTs have been advised to transfer funds in the account of construction workers through DBT mode from the Cess fund collected by the Labour Welfare Boards under the BOCW cess Act. "About Rs 52000 crore is available as cess fund and about 3.5 crore construction workers are registered with these Construction welfare Boards", the advisory said. Coronavirus Outbreak in India: 446 Active Cases, 37 Cured, 9 Deaths in the Country So Far, Says Health Ministry.
Amid the total lockdown, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he will address the nation again at 8 pm on Tuesday. In India, there are 446 active COVID-19 cases and nine deaths have been reported so far in the country due to coronavirus. The worst-affected is Maharashtra with 106 cases followed by Kerala with 98 cases. In the wake of the growing scare, as many as 32 states and union territories have imposed a complete lockdown in their entire territories covering as many as 548 districts.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 24, 2020 04:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).