Covid-19: Govt gets 131 claims under insurance scheme for health workers

The central government has received 131 claims under an insurance scheme for healthcare workers engaged in COVID-19 related duty and payments have already been made in 20 of them, an officer said on Thursday.

The claims are coming in a bit slow as families are initially in a state of shock when a death occurs and, therefore, it takes time to do the necessary paperwork, Officer on Special Duty in the Health Ministry Rajesh Bhushan said at a press briefing.

"Under the scheme, we have received 131 claims. Out of these 131 claims, payments have already been made in 20 cases. In 64 cases payment has been processed and would be made in the coming few days, while 47 cases are with different state governments. Maximum number of cases are in Maharashtra, Delhi and Telangana," he said.

The insurance provides a comprehensive personal accident cover of Rs 50 lakh to a total of around 22.12 lakh public healthcare providers, including community health workers, who may have to be in direct contact and care of patients suffering from the coronavirus infection and who may be at risk of being impacted by this.

The insurance scheme for health workers in government hospitals and healthcare centres, operationalised for a period of three months from March 30, has been extended up to September.

Bhushan also expressed deep appreciation for the extreme sense of dedication towards duty exhibited by all doctors, nurses and paramedics and healthcare workers during the challenging times.

"Without their commitment and supreme sacrifice, the figures of one million COVID-19 recoveries would not have been impossible," he said.

India's COVID-19 infection tally rose to 15,83,792, while the recoveries went past 10 lakh on Thursday, according to the Union Health Ministry's data.

The death toll has climbed to 34,968 with 775 people succumbing to the disease in a day, the data updated at 8 am showed.

There are 5,28,242 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country presently.