By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: The Union Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Ashwini Kumar Choubey stated this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday said there is provision made under ‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package for Health Workers Fighting COVID-19. This is a Central Sector scheme.
The scheme provide an insurance cover of Rs. 50 lakh to healthcare providers, including community health workers, who may have to be in direct contact and care of COVID-19 patients and who may be at risk of being impacted by this. It will also include accidental loss of life on account of contracting COVID-19, he said.
The scheme also covers private hospital staff/ retired/volunteer/ local urban bodies/contract/daily wage/ ad-hoc/outsourced staff requisitioned by States/ Central hospitals/autonomous hospitals of Central/States/UTs, AIIMS & INIs/ hospitals of Central Ministries drafted for COVID-19 related responsibilities.The insurance provided under this scheme would be over and above any other insurance cover being availed of by the beneficiary.
In addition for treatment of those affected by COVID, Government is implementing Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) to provide health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to around 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families (approx. 50 crore Individuals) as per Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data. To effectively cover AB-PMJAY beneficiaries for testing and treatment of COVID-19, packages for ‘Testing for COVID-19’ and ‘Treatment of COVID-19’ have been notified.
India would be following a scenario based approach for the following possible scenarios, (i) Travel related case reported in India, (ii) Local transmission of COVID-19, (iii) Large outbreaks amenable to containment, (iv) Wide-spread community Transmission of COVID-19 disease and (v) India becomes endemic for COVID-19.Currently many areas are experiencing large outbreaks amenable to containment. Hence a containment strategy is being followed by Government of India.
Government has succeeded to a great extent in controlling the aggressive progression of COVID-19 in the country. India has recorded 3,328 cases and 55 deaths per million population, which is one of the lowest in the world as compared to similarly affected countries.Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India followed a graded approach for expanding COVID-19 dedicated hospital infrastructure.
Over the past 6 months, dedicated isolation beds capacity has been expanded 36.3 times and dedicated ICU beds above 24.6 times to what existed in March 2020. As of now, there are enough bed available to face any contingency. Further clinical management protocol for COVID-19 was issued and regularly updated & widely circulated. Mainstay of treatment is appropriate rehydration, supplemental oxygen therapy, hydroxychloroquine for mild (but high-risk cases) and for moderate cases and management of symptoms. MoHFW has ensured adequate availability of oxygen and hydroxychloroquine. The case fatality rate in India is almost half that of global average.
The low case fatality can be attributed to constant monitoring for fatality mitigation that includes early case detection through surveillance, monitoring of oxygen saturation, early referral to COVID treatment facilities and adequate case management, he added.
