Govt releases 6,310 cr to states as part of Covid-19 health package

According to the data released by the ministry, Centre has released a maximum amount of Rs 773.24 cr, followed by Maharashtra (592.82 cr)- the state which is drastically affected by the deadly virus.

Hyderabad: The central government has so far released Rs 6,309.90 crore to the states and UTs under the Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Package during 2020-21, according to the union health ministry. According to the ministry, the government has procured 38,867 ventilators at a cost of ₹1,850.76 crore since January 2020 till date.

Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare) said that during the Financial Year 2019-20, Rs 11,13.21 crore was also released to the states/UTs.

According to the data released by the ministry, Centre has released a maximum amount of Rs 773.24 cr, followed by Maharashtra (592.82 cr)- the state which is drastically affected by the deadly virus.

The data shows Lakshadweep received the minimum amount of Rs 40 lakhs.

Continuing its streak of low numbers of single-day coronavirus cases, India reported 11,713 new infections in the last 24 hours even as its overall tally mounted to 1,08,14,304, health officials said on Saturday.

For over a week, the country has recorded less than 15,000 new infections daily. Also, the daily Covid-19 death toll has been below the 300-mark for more than a month now.

On January 19, India had reported 10,064 new cases, the lowest this year. Last year, the lowest 9,633 cases were recorded on June 3.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that there were 95 more Covid-19 fatalities, taking the overall death toll to 1,54,918.

As per the Ministry's data, there are 1,48,590 active cases at present after 14,488 patients were discharged in a day. Till now, 1,05,10,796 persons have been discharged so far.

The recovery rate has increased to 97.2 per cent, while the fatality rate is down to 1.43 per cent.

A total of 20,06,72,589 samples have been tested for Covid-19 up to February 5. Of these, 7,40,794 samples were tested on Friday, said the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Nearly 5.5 million (54,16,849) doses of corona vaccine doses have been administered in India since the drive began on January 16 after approval for 'Covishield' and 'Covaxin'.

As per the Health Ministry, India is in the fifth position globally in terms of the vaccine doses administered in the country, even though many countries had launched their vaccination campaigns before India.