Lok Sabha Question No. 892 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-02-05
Subject: Compensation to Healthworkers
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: Bhartruhari Mahtab, Bheemrao Baswanthrao Patil, Gajanan Chandrakant Kirtikar, C.N. Annadurai, Gautham Sigamani Pon, Ganesan Selvam, Dhanush M Kumar, Basanta Kumar Panda

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 892 TO BE ANSWERED ON 5 TH FEBRUARY, 2021

## COMPENSATION TO HEAL THWORKERS

## 892. SHRI BHARTRUHARI MAH TAB:

SHRI B.B.PATIL:

SHRI GAJANAN KIRTIKA R:

SHRI C.N. ANNADURAI:

SHRI GAUTHAM SIGAMAN I PON:

SHRI SELVAM G.:

SHRI DHANUSH M. KUMA R:

SHRI BASANTA KUMAR P ANDA:

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WE LFARE be pleased to state:

- (a) whet her the Government has made any ssessment on the measures taken to stop COVID 19 Pandemic in the country, if so, the details and outcome thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (b)  the  number  of  doctors,  nurses  and  other healthworkers  engaged  in  various  Government hospitals for COVID duty, State/UT - wise including Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra;
- (c) whether Government proposes to grant any monetary and other benefits to them, if so, the details thereof, scheme/State/UT - wise;
- (d)  the  number  of  Doctors,  Nurses  and  other  health care  workers  died  due to  this  Pandemic across the country so far, State/UT - wise;
- (e) whether the Government has proposed any compensation to the next of kin of such deceased Doctors, Nurses and other health care workers, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons there for; and
- (f) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to ensure safety of Doctors, Nurses and other health care worker s from Corona Virus and appoint more doctors and nurses to meet the shortage in Government hospitals?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

- (a):Duly implementing series of containment measures including lockdown and promotion of COVID  appropriate  behavior,  India  has  been  able  to  successfully  manage  and  blunt aggress ive progression of COVID - 19 in the country.

Dedicated health infrastructure focused on COVID - 19 was identified and earmarked to manage surge in cases. As on 3 rd February 2021 there are 15,17,506 Isolation beds and 79,385 ICU beds with 40,311 Ventilators available in the country. Currently 1214 Government and 1 Private laboratories are undertaking COVID - 19 testing (as on 4 th Feb 2021 ) .

Additionally,  during  this  period,  various  cadres  of  personn el  and  volunteers  across sectors and departments for COVID related works and maintenance of other essential medi services were worked out, trained through resources made available on the website of MoH iGOT (online platform) by DOPT ( https://igot.gov.in/igot/ ).

As of now the case per million and Death per million in the country are 7719 and respectively which is much lower compared to the status in many developed countries also.

Necessary monitoring is b eing undertaken for COVID - 19 on a regular basis.

(b): As 'Health' is a State subject, there is no centralized data being maintained by Ministry of Health & Family Welfare on number of doctors, nurses and other health workers engaged various Government hospitals for COVID duty.

(c):  An additional incentive of Rs. 1000/ - per month is being paid to ASHAs in view of their significant contribution towards COVID - 19 pandemic related work.

(d):  Based on the intimations received from the states  under  the Pradhan Man ri Garib Kalyan Package: Insurance Scheme for Health Workers fighting COVID - 19 the  number of  Doctors, Nurses and other Health care workers who died due to this pandemic as on 02.02.21 State -wise is placed at Annexure .

(e):  Pradhan Mantr i Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP): Insurance Scheme for Health Workers Fighting  COVID 19'  was  launched  w.e.f.  30.03.2020  to  provide  comprehensive  personal accident cover of Rs. 50 lakh to around 22.12 lakh healthcare providers, including comm health  work ers  and  private  health  workers  drafted  by  the  Government  for  COVID19  relate responsibilities, who may have to be in direct contact and care of COVID - 19 patients and who may be at risk of being impacted by this.

(f):    Ministry  of  Health  and  Family  Welfare provided  guideline  on  Infection  Prevention  and Control practices to the State Governments (available at: https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf//National%20Guidelines%20for%20IPC%20in%20HCF%20 -%20final%281%29.pdf)  to  minimize  the  risk  of  infection  to  healthcare  wor kers.  Training  on Infection Prevention and Control was also made available for all category of healthcare on the iGoT platform.

In  case  of  high  risk  exposure,  healthcare  workers  are  provided  a  quarantine  p initially for one week only and ther eafter taking the profile of the health worker a decision to taken for further period of one week. An advisory to this effect for managing health care working in COVID and Non - COVID areas of the hospital was issued by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on 18th June, 2020 (available at:

https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/updatedAdvisoryformanagingHealthcareworkersworkinginCOVI DandNonCOVIDareasofthehospital.pdf). Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in consultatio with  Department  of  Personnel  Training has  also  directed  State  Governments  to  consider quarantine  period  of  healthcare  workers  as  'on  duty'.  Union  Ministry  of  Health  &  Family Welfare  has  also  issued  direction  to  the  Chief  Secretary  of  the  States/Union  Territo provision for accommodation facilities for quarantine of healthcare workers.

Guidelines on rational use of PPEs for hospital and community settings (including line workers) were issued (available at: https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/GuidelinesonrationaluseofPersonalProtectiveEquip ment.pdf and https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/UpdatedAdditionalguidelinesonrationaluseofPersonalProtectiveE quipmentsettingapproachforHealthfunctionariesworkinginnonCOVID19areas.pdf). These guidelines followed a risk - based approach and recommended type of PPE t hat needs to be used in high and low risk areas.

The  healthcare  workers  were  provided  with  hydroxychloroquine  for  prophylaxis  an prevention of infection. An advisory to that affect was also issued by MoHFW on 23rd March 2020 (available at:

https://www.moh fw.gov.in/pdf/Revisedadvisoryontheuseofhydroxychloroquineasprophylaxisfor SARSCOVID19infection.pdf)

States are being supported in terms of supply of logistics. So far 1.69 crore of P 4.08  crores  N - 95  masks,  11.16  crore  tablets  of  Hydroxychloroquine have  been  supplied  to States/UTs/ Central Government hospitals so far (as reported on 2nd February 2021).

In the context of COVID - 19, the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 was promulgated on 22nd April 2020. Further this ordinance was brought b efo e the parliament has been  passed  and  notified  on  29th  September  2020.  The  amendment  provides  for  safety  a security of Health care Service Personnel (HSPs) from acts of violence.

Annexure No. of Nurses, Doctors & other Health workers Claims (Under PMGKP: Insurance Scheme for Health workers fighting COVID - 19)As on 0 2- 02- 21

| Sr. No.   | State/UT                         |   No. of Nurses |   No. of Doctors |   Other Health workers* |
|-----------|----------------------------------|-----------------|------------------|-------------------------|
| 1         | A & N Islands                    |               1 |                1 |                       0 |
| 2         | Andhra Pradesh                   |              17 |               15 |                      12 |
| 3         | Arunachal Pradesh                |               0 |                0 |                       4 |
| 4         | Assam                            |               1 |                4 |                       4 |
| 5         | Bihar                            |               3 |                9 |                       2 |
| 6         | Chandigarh                       |               0 |                0 |                       2 |
| 7         | Chhattisgarh                     |               2 |                7 |                       7 |
| 8         | Dadra & Nagar Haveli Daman & Diu |               0 |                0 |                       1 |
| 9         | Delhi                            |               0 |                7 |                       4 |
| 10        | Goa                              |               0 |                0 |                       0 |
| 11        | Gujarat                          |              12 |                9 |                       7 |
| 12        | Haryana                          |               2 |                7 |                       2 |
| 13        | Himachal Pradesh                 |               0 |                1 |                       0 |
| 14        | Jammu & Kashmir                  |               3 |                4 |                       7 |
| 15        | Jharkhand                        |               2 |                4 |                       2 |
| 16        | Karnataka                        |               6 |               13 |                      21 |
| 17        | Kerala                           |               2 |                1 |                       1 |
| 18        | Ladakh                           |               0 |                0 |                       0 |
| 19        | Lakshadweep                      |               0 |                0 |                       0 |
| 20        | Madhya Pradesh                   |               6 |               10 |                      12 |
| 21        | Maharashtra                      |              11 |               21 |                      55 |
| 22        | Manipur                          |               0 |                0 |                       0 |
| 23        | Meghalaya                        |               0 |                0 |                       0 |
| 24        | Mizoram                          |               0 |                0 |                       0 |
| 25        | Nagaland                         |               0 |                0 |                       0 |
| 26        | Odisha                           |               2 |                7 |                       5 |
| 27        | Puducherry                       |               1 |                0 |                       5 |
| 28        | Punjab                           |               3 |                3 |                       6 |
| 29        | Rajasthan                        |              15 |               10 |                       8 |
| 30        | Sikkim                           |               2 |                0 |                       1 |
| 31        | Tamil Nadu                       |               7 |               11 |                       8 |
| 32        | Telangana                        |               9 |                6 |                      13 |
| 33        | Tripura                          |               0 |                0 |                       0 |
| 34        | Uttar Pradesh                    |               5 |               18 |                       5 |
| 35        | Uttarakhand                      |               0 |                1 |                       1 |
| 36        | West Bengal                      |               4 |                5 |                       4 |
| Total     | Total                            |             116 |              174 |                     199 |