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With State governments having to play an important part in fighting Covid-19, the Centre has been releasing funds to States for this purpose. But the total amount released so far adds to less than ₹10,000 crore; at ₹ 9,260.49 crore . Of these, 47 per cent of the funds were given to five States including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Kerala.
The data given by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to the Lok Sabha on July 23 shows that Maharashtra has got ₹1,259.33 crore that amounts to 14 per cent of the total central funds but at the same time, the State also leads the chart of the total number of Covid-19 cases and deaths in India.
As per the Centre’s data available on July 29, 2021, Maharashtra has 20 per cent of total Covid-19 cases in India followed by Kerala which has reported 10 per cent of total cases. However, Kerala has received ₹648.17 crore as central aid which is about 7 per cent of the total released funds.
Karnataka with 28,40,147 Covid-19 cases stands third in the list of States having the highest number of cases and has received funds of ₹469 crore (5 per cent of the total released funds).
TN, UP get more funds
While despite reporting less number of cases compared to Kerala and Karnataka, Tamil Nadu has received second highest fund of ₹916.33 crore, which is 10 per cent of the total funds released.
Also read: Centre defends its Covid management
India’s biggest State Uttar Pradesh has reported just 5 per cent of the total Covid-19 cases in India, but the State has got ₹673.65 crore, which is seven per cent of the total funds. This amount is more than that received by Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, States which reported more number of Covid-19 cases than Uttar Pradesh.
Despite reporting same 5 per cent of total Covid-19 cases like Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, West Bengal received just ₹339.81 crore funds, which is less than the sum received by the other two States.
How the funds were used
During 2019-20, funds to the tune of ₹1,113.21 crore were released to the States/UTs under the National Health Mission (NHM) towards management and containment of Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020-21, funds totalling ₹8,147.28 crore (excluding ₹110.6 crore health insurance of health workers) has been released under India Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package, through NHM.
According to the Ministry, States utilize these funds as per their local context and arising needs for the effective management of Covid-19 pandemic.
As per the data based on the information given by the States to the Ministry in March this year, 8,07,476 isolation beds, 1,74,533 Oxygen supported beds and 42,988 beds of ICU beds were created using the funds. Also, 1,724 negative pressure isolation rooms were added for the management of Covid-19 in the country.
With the support of Centre’s funds, 3,297 specialists, 5,417 medical officers, 31,762 staff nurses and 15,365 multipurpose health workers were additionally engaged in the States for the management of Covid-19.
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