₹15,000
crore sanctioned for States to Combat Covid-19
The Centre has announced a ₹15,000 crore
‘India Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package’ to
help States tackle the coronavirus oubreak.
Up to ₹7,774 crore will be utilised for an
immediate Covid-19 emergency response. The rest will be for medium-term support
between a year to four years and will be provided in
mission mode.
The Centre has said that the Health Ministry will oversee the
interventions to be carried out through this fund, including development of
diagnostics and Covid-19-dedicated treatment facilities; centralised
procurement of essential medical equipment and drugs required for the treatment
of infected patients; and bolstering of surveillance, bio-security preparedness
and pandemic research.
The Health Ministry said it has already disbursed ₹4,113 crore to all the
States and UTs.
Kerala has proposed to adopt convalescent plasma therapy among
Covid-19 infected patients. The therapy involves transfusing blood plasma from
patients cured of Covid-19 into the blood stream of those infected, to
understand if infected patients build immunity to beat the disease through the
therapy.
Manoj Murhekar,
Director, National Institute of Epidemiology, said that the clinical trial
protocol was in its final stages of approval in ICMR and then by the Drug
Controller General of India.
“In other countries, the therapy has been useful in limited
trials in severe patients on ventilators, and Kerala will be given sanctions to
move ahead after necessary approvals are in place,” he said.
India has tested 1.3 lakh samples till date, and the positivity
rate has hovered around 3-5 per cent. Up to 13,143 samples were tested on April
9, the ICMR has stated.
Meanwhile, briefing presspersons on the spread of the pandemic
in the country, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary,
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said: “Over 540 new cases were recorded
till 4 pm (on Thursday), and 17 new deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours.”