Uttar Pradesh: More funds allocated for Covid management

LUCKNOW: Use of state disaster relief fund for various Covid-related expenditure was cleared by the state disaster management executive committee, headed by chief secretary RK Tiwari, on Friday.
It has been decided to give Rs 1 crore each to CSIR, NBRI, CDRI and Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany for purchase of consumables and medicines etc. A proposal to allocate Rs 7.72 crore for operating quarantine centres in all 75 districts was also approved, along with Rs 225 crore for purchase of medical consumables in the districts including testing kits, surveillance, screening, quarantine camps, renting vehicles for contact tracing.
Another Rs 45 crore was approved for PPE kits and other essentials for police personnel. A proposal of Rs 20 crore to pay to railways for ferrying oxygen tankers from Jharkhand, West Bengal and other states was cleared. Other proposals that were cleared included Rs 80 crore for establishing labs in Covid hospitals, Rs 1.90 crore to UPSIDA for oxygen plants, and Rs 50 crore to KGMU for RT-PCR kits and RNA extraction kits.