MBBS students on COVID-19 duty in Himachal Pradesh to get monthly incentive

The state government said that the fourth and fifth-year MBBS students, contractual doctors and junior/senior residents would be provided an incentive of Rs 3,000 per month. 

COVID-19 Warriors: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on April 4, 2021, announced that doctors and para-medical staff working at COVID-19 hospitals would receive financial incentive until June this year. Considering that the medical aspirants are also being pulled in to perform COVID-19 duties, the state government said that the fourth and fifth-year MBBS students, contractual doctors and junior/senior residents would be provided an incentive of Rs 3,000 per month while nursing students, General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) third-year students and contractual lab staff would be provided an incentive of Rs 1,500 per month.

The minister made the announcement during a video meeting with officials of Kangra, in view of the terrifying increase in the novel coronavirus cases in the district. Later in the day, the CM visited Radhaswami Satsang Vyas at Paraur in the district and directed officials to create an additional bed capacity of 250 within next 10 days that would gradually increase to about 1,000 beds.

The minister revealed, out of the 3,59,489 samples been collected in Kangra so far, 19,570 have tested positive, Kangra Deputy Commissioner Rakesh Prajapati said. There were 5,384 active cases in the district and the positivity rate was 5.44 percent while recovery rate was 70.34 percent.

Mr Prajapati further said the vaccination drive was going smoothly and till date, 3,82,851 doses of vaccine had been administered to frontline workers, corona warriors and people above the age of 45. The CM has directed officials to ensure smooth supply of oxygen and to enhance the availability of ICU beds in Kangra. He said private laboratories must be empanelled and requisitioned so more RT-PCR tests were conducted and results were provided at the earliest.

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