In first Cabinet meet after reshuffle, Centre announces Rs 23,123 crore COVID management package

In the first Cabinet meeting after the reshuffle, the newly inducted Union Cabinet approved allocation of a new emergency response package worth Rs 23,123 crore to tackle the pandemic.

“Rs 23,000 crore package to be given to deal with . It will be used jointly by the Central and state governments,” said the new Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya in the first media briefing of the new cabinet.

Addressing a press conference here after the first meeting of the Union cabinet following its reshuffle, Mandaviya said the package will be implemented over the next nine months till March 2022.

The meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mandaviya said this is the second phase of the Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package as the Central government had given Rs 15,000 crore earlier for setting up COVID-dedicated hospitals and health centres across the country.

The package will help set up paediatrics departments in 736 districts, 20,000 new ICU beds and acquire buffer stocks of medicines, Mandaviya added.

The health minister said that under the new package, the Centre would provide Rs 15,000 crore and states Rs 8,000 crore and the plan would be implemented jointly by them across all the 736 districts of the country to improve medical infrastructure at primary and district health centres.

Around 2.4 lakh normal medical beds and 20,000 ICU beds would be created of which 20 percent would be specially earmarked for children, he said.

The minister said storage facilities for oxygen and medicines would also be created at district level under the plan. The plan aims to accelerate health system preparedness for immediate responsiveness for early prevention, detection and management of Covid with the focus on infrastructure development including for Paediatric Care and with measurable outcomes, he said.

In March 2020, the Cabinet had approved Rs 15,000 crore package for emergency response, which was utilised to upgrade the health infrastructure of the country, Mandaviya added.

Centre's new health package: The Centre announced a new scheme ‘India Emergency Response & Health System Preparedness Package: Phase-II’ amounting to Rs 23,123 crore for FY 2021-22.

 As per an official press release, the new scheme aims to accelerate health system preparedness for immediate responsiveness for early prevention, detection and management, with the focus on health infrastructure development including for paediatric care and with measurable outcomes.

This scheme would be implemented at a total cost of Rs 23,123 crore, from 1 July, 2021, to 31 March, 2022, with central and state shares as under:

• Central share: Rs 15,000 crore
• State share: Rs 8,123 crore

The Phase-II of the Package has central sector (CS) and centrally sponsored schemes (CSS) components.

Central sector components

• National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) would be strengthened by providing genome sequencing machines, besides sanctioning scientific control room, Epidemic Intelligence Services (EIS) and INSACOG Secretariat support.
• Support would be provided for the implementation of the Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) in all the district hospitals (DHs) of the country. Presently, it is implemented only in 310 DHs.
• All district –hospitals would implement HMIS through NIC developed E-Hospital and CDAC developed E-Shushrut softwares. This will be the biggest impetus for the implementation of the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) at the district hosptials. This support includes the support provided to the district hospitals towards augmentation of the hardware capacity.

Centrally sponsored schemes

Under this scheme, the government's efforts are aimed at strengthening district and sub-district capacity for an effective and rapid response to the pandemic. States/UTs would be supported to:

• Create paediatric units in all 736 districts and also, establish Paediatric Centre of Excellence (PaediatricCoE) in each state/UT, (either in medical colleges, state government hospitals or central hospitals such as AIIMS, INIs, etc) for providing tele-ICU services, mentoring and technical hand-holding to the district paediatric units.
• Augment 20,000 ICU beds in public healthcare system out of which 20 percent will be paediatric ICU beds.
• Install 1050 numbers of liquid medical oxygen storage tanks with medical gas pipeline system (MGPS), with an aim to support at least one such unit per district.
• Augment the existing feet of ambulances — 8,800 ambulances will be added under the package.

Here's what the Centre said on the vaccine front: The government on Thursday said it is "actively pursuing" the enhancement of vaccine availability through imports and reiterated that its current focus is on purposing domestic production towards its vaccination programme.

• At an online media briefing, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India hopes that individual countries would increasingly recognise made-in-India vaccines.
• "Let me reiterate that our current focus continues to be on purposing domestic production towards India's domestic vaccination programme," he said, adding, "We are also actively pursuing the enhancement of vaccine availability through imports. This has helped increase the pace of vaccination in recent weeks."
• The total number of vaccine doses administered so far has reached 36.48 crore under the nationwide vaccination drive.
• Asked about the World Health Organization approval for COVAXIN, Bagchi said the government is continuing to monitor the progress and added, "I would refer you to Bharat Biotech for the exact status of where it stands. We also hope that individual countries would increasingly recognize made-in-India vaccines."

Asked how many countries have shown interest in India's technology platform for vaccination CoWin, Bagchi pointed out that a very important event, the CoWIN Global Conclave, was convened earlier this week and was addressed by the prime minister and other dignitaries.

"This was an opportunity to offer to the world our indigenously developed digital platform CoWin which is an open-source and can be shared with all. More than 400 participants from over 140 partner countries participated," the MEA spokesperson said, adding that discussions will continue with partner countries.

With inputs from PTI