The union government has released Rs 167 crore to J&K under ‘India’s COVID19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package’ post-outbreak of pandemic.
In J&K, 1944 persons have died due to covid19 so far.
In a written reply, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan in the parliament stated that 167.52 crore were released as grant-in-aid to the Jammu and Kashmir government under a central package to fight COVID.
The funds and commodities have been allocated to J&K under various components of the package.
The Rs 15,000 crore ‘India COVID19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package’ was approved by the union cabinet on 22 April 2020 with an objective to prevent, detect and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19.
Under the Package, Rs 6,309.90 crore stand released to the states/UTs, through National Health Mission (NHM) as on 21 January 2021.
“It is highly likely that J&K will get more funds under the COVID emergency response,” a senior government official said, adding that “it was due to liberal funding by the central and UT government that J&K was able to carry out over 20,000 tests a day free of cost which included both Rapid Antigen and RT-PCR tests.”
As per the official data, 46.4 lakh persons were tested for the virus in Jammu and Kashmir since mid March when the first case of COVID was reported in Kashmir. Out of these, 45.18 lakh were reported negative.
Though the government has lifted COVID related restrictions, the health department officials are stressing on following SOPs which include maintaining social distancing at public places, frequent hand washing and use of facemasks.
A senior health department official stated that J&K’s testing rate was among the top five states/UTs.
It is pertinent to mention that the central government has also delivered over 900 ventilators to Jammu and Kashmir to augment its infrastructural capacities to fight pandemic.
Apart from central government’s aid, UT government will also utilise Rs 368 crore World Bank fund to upgrade the critical care facilities and augment medical oxygen supplies in health care units across J&K.