India / Health Ministry got ₹893.93 cr from PM-CARES Fund: Harsh Vardhan

NEW DELHI: The union health ministry was given ₹893.93 crore from PM CARES for 50,000 make in India ventilators, union health minister Harsh Vardhan told parliament on Sunday.

The discussion on covid-19 situation in the country continued on Sunday in the parliament during which the health minister said listed the measures taken by the government about tackling the pandemic.

The NCP MP asked the Centre that if India is not in community transmission phase then why are we reporting nearly one lakh cases every day.

The health minister said that during March 16- March 23, most state governments imposed lockdowns either partial or full.

The health minister said that the Janta curfew was an innovative idea to prepare the country for the pandemic and also gauge the readiness to tackle the disease.

The health minister recalled his previous statement where he explained about how the lockdown prevented cases and deaths as per the to scientific independent studies.

The health minister also highlighted that government brought back over 12 lakh Indian stranded in other countries through Vande Bharat mission.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury pointed out that the pandemic impact could have been mitigated in a better manner. He lashed our the central government saying that it has done everything in mismanaged manner since the pandemic hit the country. Choudhary also highlighted lack of data on covid deaths among healthcare professional stating that India has seen one of the number of doctor's death during the pandemic.

He also alleged that there have been underreporting of such cases in the country.

NCP MP Amol Ramsingh Kolhe argued if the country is under community transmission of the disease. The government has been praising itself about high recovery and low death rate but about 90,000 persons have died from coronavirus.

The government has ignored the deaths due to lockdown and the deaths among migrant worker and their families, said Kolhe.

I want to ask the Health Minister whether or not there is community transmission in India. If the answer if yes, it proves all policies of the government have failed. If the answer is no, then how do have about one lakh new cases everyday, the NCP MP adds.

DMK's Dayanidhi Maran said that India saw its first case of Corona was in Kerala in February. The government should have woken up and closed the border right then. Shashi Tharoor sharing the WHO said that India has the highest number of daily Covid cases and deaths in the world.

The parliament also discussed about the Epidemic Diseases Amendment Bill, 2020 that was passed by the Rajya Sabha. The Bill aims to bring a law punishing those who attack health workers or doctors who are fighting the coronavirus outbreak or during any situation similar to the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile the Lok Sabha passed the National Forensic Sciences University Bill, 2020.