The central government on Saturday declared COVID-19 as anational ‘disaster’ and announced to provide ex-gratia relief of Rs 4 lakh tothe families who died of the virus.
The Ministry of Home Affairs in a letter to states and unionterritories stated: “Keeping in view the spread of COVID-19 virus in Indiathe declaration of it as pandemic by World Health Organisation, the Centralgovernment has decided to treat it as a notified disaster and announced toprovide assistance under State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).”
The Centre said that cost of hospitalization for managingCOVID-19 patients would be at the rates fixed by the state governments. Thestate government can use SDRF found for providing temporary accommodation,food, clothing and medical care for people affected and sheltered in quarantinecamps, other than home quarantine, or for cluster containment operations.
The state executive committee will decide the number ofquarantine camps, their duration and the number of persons in such camps.”Period can be extended by the committee beyond the prescribed limitsubject to condition that expenditure on this account should not exceed 25percent of SDRF allocation for the year,” the Ministry of Home Affairsnotification stated.
The cost of consumables for sample collection would be takenfrom the funds which can be sued to support for checking, screening and contacttracing.
Further, funds can also be withdrawn for setting upadditional testing laboratories within the government set up. The state hasalso to bear the cost of personal protection equipment for healthcare,municipal, police and fire authorities. Further SDRF money can also be used forprocuring thermal scanners and ventilation and other necessary equipment.