Arunachal Pradesh gears up to fight coronavirus, allocates funds to districts

Our Correspondent

Itanagar: With the COVID-19 pandemic gripping the entire world and the country under lockdown to break the chain of the virus, State machineries in Arunachal Pradesh have been geared up to fight coronavirus by putting in all its resources.

All the 26 Deputy Commissioners (DCs) of the State have been given funds by the government to tackle the current situation.

Each DCs have been provided Rs 12 lakh from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) totalling to an amount of Rs 3.12 crore, while another amount of Rs 1.30 crore have been released to all the Superintendent of Polices (SPs) from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF) to tackle COVID-19 pandemic.

“In order to empower the district administration to fight against the coronavirus, the funds under Mukhya Mantri Rogi Kalyan Kosh (MMRKK) of about Rs 15 crore have been released to all 26 districts in the State,” Chief Minister Pema Khandu said in a statement here on Tuesday.

The guidelines of the MMRKK have been relaxed to the extent that 80 per cent of funds at the disposal of the districts which could be used for procurement of medicines, consumables and equipment, Khandu said.

The remaining 20 percent would be utilized for conducting health camps and engaging doctors, retired doctors, para medics and contingency staff for next three months period.

Meanwhile, the State government in order to strengthen the public health system and ensure concrete preparedness against COVID-19 has appealed to the retired health professionals to volunteer for reserve staff to supplement the current human resources and staffing shortages in the State.

The interested health professionals have been requested to contact the Director of Health Services at Naharlagun.

“The frontline response team deployed all over the state is dealing with COVID 19 suspects for which personal protective equipment (PPEs) have been supplied. A total of 10,000 N-95 masks from HLL Lifecare Limited, 300 VTMs from Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and 30 thermal scanners reached the State on Tuesday and distribution is underway,” the Chief Minister said.

Khandu added that to meet up the shortage of medical equipment due to the lockdown, a special chartered cargo flight has been arranged by the State government from New Delhi to Guwahati on Wednesday to ferry essential medical equipment like surgical masks, PPEs with all accessories and other stuffs for the State.

“Medical items for sanitization have also been ferried in to the State. State-run helicopters has been put into service to deliver all essential ration commodities to people living in far flung areas which are not connected by roads,” Khandu informed, adding the first helicopter sortie was made to Vijaynagar on Tuesday and another five sorties have been planned for the week.

As preparedness measures, ICU with ventilators have been set up in Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (TRIHMS) while, isolation wards and quarantine rooms have been identified in all the districts besides, helpline and control room working round the clock, The Chief Minister added in the statement.

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