Foreign aid received to fight COVID-19 second wave dispatched to 31 states, says Centre

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday said that it has started distributing foreign aid received to fight the raging COVID-19 pandemic and 38 institutions across 31 states have already received crucial medical equipment and supply sent by other countries.

So far, India has received 24 different categories of items, mainly BiPAP Machines, oxygen concentrators, oxygen cylinders, PSA oxygen plants, pulse oximeters, drugs such as faviparivir and remdesivir and PPE kits and N 95 masks numbering nearly 40 lakhs.

Forty-three more institutions in states are slated to receive the supplies in the coming days.

The Union ministry of health and family welfare said that a special cell has been constituted to coordinate the receipt and allocate the resources among states and the allocation has been done keeping in mind equitable distribution and the load on tertiary health care facilities.

Initially, states have been covered via the AIIMS and other central institutions where the critical care patients load is high and where the need is highest, the government said.

Besides, central government hospitals including DRDO facilities in and around Delhi and in the NCR region have also been supplemented through the aid.

The focus has largely been on tertiary health care facilities as they have a higher number of cases with severe symptoms of COVID and are often the only succour to people in the region for quality tertiary care, the ministry underscored.

The government maintained that as the materials from abroad are currently coming in different numbers, specifications and at different times, there is a need to reconcile the distribution logistics with the need to reach the materials as expeditiously as possible to the states.

It has been decided that since grant in aid is likely to be limited in quantity, it has to be optimally utilized by allocating it to high burden states as spreading such grants in aid thinly each time, over a large number of states, may not bring any benefit and will also lead to small packages travelling large distances, high turnaround times and possible wastage of resources.

Under the current distribution policy, the Centre is also seeing the requirement of high burden states in the context of number of persons admitted in hospitals as well as prior distribution done from the central resources and special focus is being given on states considered as medical hubs of the region, with high patient flows from neighbouring areas.

Hospitals which have received the foreign aid so far (region wise)

Delhi NCR

1. LHMC Delhi

2. Safdarjung Hospital Delhi

3. RML Hospital

4. AIIMS Delhi

5. DRDO Delhi

6. 2 hospitals in Delhi (Moti Nagar and Pooth Kalan)

7. NITRD Delhi

8. ITBP Noida

North East

9. NEIGRIHMS Shillong

10. RIMS Imphal

NORTH

11. AIIMS Bathinda

12. PGI Chandigarh

13. DRDO Dehradun

14. AIIMS Jhajjar

EAST

15. AIIMS Rishikesh

16. AIIMS Rae Bareli

17. AIIMS Deoghar

18. AIIMS Raipur

19. AIIMS Bhubaneswar

20. AIIMS Patna

21. DRDO Patna

22. AIIMS Kalyani

23. DRDO Varanasi

24. DRDO Lucknow

25. District Hospital Pilibhit

WEST

26. AIIMS Jodhpur

27. DRDO Dehradun

28. DRDO Ahmedabad

29. Govt Satellite Hospital Jaipur

CENTRAL

30. AIIMS Bhopal

SOUTH

31. AIIMS Mangalagiri

32. AIIMS Bibinagar

33. JIPMER Puducherry

Central government and PSU

34. CGHS

35. CRPF

36. SAIL

37. Railways

38. ICMR