India News | Over 8.7 Lakh Hospital Admissions, 50.6 Lakh Tests Authorised for COVID-19: Govt
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. Over 8.7 lakh hospital admissions and 50.6 lakh tests were authorised for COVID-19 under the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) as of March 16, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
New Delhi, Mar 22 (PTI) Over 8.7 lakh hospital admissions and 50.6 lakh tests were authorised for COVID-19 under the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) as of March 16, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
On how the Ayushman Bharat scheme was utilised during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce the financial burden on the poor, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar, in a written reply, said the National Health Authority (NHA) has been providing necessary support to states/UTs for ensuring free COVID-19 testing and treatment to all eligible beneficiaries under AB-PMJAY.
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When the pandemic started, initially existing treatment packages were used for providing Covid related treatment.
Later, special packages for treatment and testing of COVID-19 were introduced, the minister said.
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Many state governments decided to make COVID-19 testing and treatment free for all residents. While some of them used Ayushman Bharat PMJAY ecosystem, including NHA's IT platform, others used their own IT systems.
Therefore, COVID-19 treatments are captured in both general and COVID-19 specific packages of AB-PMJAY, Pawar said in the written reply.
"As of March 16, a total of 8.74 lakh hospital admissions and 50.6 lakh tests are authorised for COVID-19 under AB-PMJAY. This is with respect to transactions recorded on the NHA IT platform as well as the information shared by states, using their own IT systems," Pawar stated.
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