New Delhi: The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP), which is an insurance scheme for healthcare workers fighting Covid-19 pandemic has been extended by the government.
According to the statement released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Tuesday, the insurance scheme has been extended for a period of 180 days (6 months), from April 19.
"It has been decided to extend the policy so as to continue to provide the safety net to the dependents of health workers who are deputed to take care of COVID-19 patients," read the official statement of the ministry.
"A letter dt. 19th April 2022 to this effect has been issued to the Additional Chief Secretaries (Health)/Principal Secretaries (Health)/ Secretaries (Health) of all States/UTs for giving wide publicity amongst the health workers in their respective States/UTs, the statement further read.
After Covid-19 pandemic hit the world in early 2019, healthcare workers were at the highest risk of testing positive for the virus. Keeping this in mind the government on March 30, 2020 decided to provide comprehensive personal accident cover of Rs 50 Lakh to 22.12 lakh to the workers.
The scheme also covered community health providers and private health workers who may have been in direct contact and care of Covid-19 patients.
Meanwhile, 1,247 fresh Covid cases were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry data released Tuesday. It is a decent drop from over 2,000 cases confirmed on Sunday.
With this the total tally of Covid-19 cases rose to 4,30,45,527, while the active cases increased to 11,860.
The active cases comprise 0.03 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate remained at 98.76 per cent, the ministry said.