"Since the start of the pandemic, the World Bank Group has committed or mobilised a record USD 157 billion in new financing, an unprecedented level of support for an unprecedented crisis," World Bank Group President David Malpass said.

The Centre has approved nearly Rs 40,000 crore for prevention of COVID-19 and ramping up health infrastructure, in addition to funds allocated under the National Health Mission.

This was informed by Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai in Lok Sabha while replying to a written question of BJP members Dilip Saikia and Ramesh Chander Kaushik.

Rai said as informed by the health ministry, the central government has been providing required technical and financial assistance to all states and Union Territories (UTs) for strengthening their healthcare system, including management of the COVID-19 public health challenge, from time to time, and the financial assistance to states and UTs is provided under the National Health Mission (NHM).

During 2019-20, funds to the tune of Rs 1113.21 crore were released to states and UTs towards management of COVID -19, over and above their normal resource envelope under the NHM, he said.

Further, the central government has approved the ''India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package'' and Rs 15,000 crore was provided under it in April 2020 with an objective to prevent, detect and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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Rs 40,000 crore approved to deal with COVID-19 pandemic, to ramp up of health infra

This was informed by Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai in Lok Sabha while replying to a written question of BJP members Dilip Saikia and Ramesh Chander Kaushik.

"Since the start of the pandemic, the World Bank Group has committed or mobilised a record USD 157 billion in new financing, an unprecedented level of support for an unprecedented crisis," World Bank Group President David Malpass said.

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