Amid the grave health crisis in the country due to COVID-19 novel coronavirus that has led to a countrywide lockdown, the Odisha government led by CM Naveen Patnaik announced that the state of Odisha will be setting up two hospitals for COVID-19 patients with a combined capacity of 1000 beds.
https://twitter.com/TimesNow/status/1243114312454901761?ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwThe said hospitals, planned in collaboration with the SUM Hospital and KIIMS Medical College will be set up in a fortnight. OMC and MCL will provide CSR funding for the purpose. Both the new facilities will be functional in a fortnight.
The State of Odisha had yesterday announced an advance salary for doctors, nurses and healthcare workers for the next four months. In a video conferencing, CM Naveen Patnaik said, “Our doctors, paramedics, and healthcare workers are in the first line of defense providing relentless services amid these difficult conditions.”
The government of Odisha is also setting up testing labs in various districts and also announced earlier to arrange 2000 isolation beds for the coronavirus patients.
Earlier on Thursday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a financial package that would take care of the welfare concerns of the poor and the suffering migrant workers after the 21-day lockdown which has been announced to break the chain of the novel coronavirus. The package is called as ‘Prime Minister Gareeb Kalyan Yojana and totalled a whopping 1.70 lakh crores.
The Finance Minister said that one side of the scheme would focus on cash transfers through DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) and the other would focus on food security as the government does not want anyone to remain hungry. The package will benefit medical staff, BPL families, farmers, MGNREGA, widows, pensioners and Divyangs, households under the Ujjwala scheme, self-help women who are dealing with Livelihood Missions, construction workers, District mineral fund and Organised Sector Workers.