New Delhi: The Central government’s insurance scheme for health workers fighting COVID-19 has been extended for another period of 180 days.

“The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP): Insurance scheme for Healthcare Workers Fighting COVID-19 has been extended for a further period of 180 days from 19th April, 2022. 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,” the government said in an order. A letter dated 19th April 2022 to this effect has been issued to 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 PMGKP was launched on March 30, 2020 to provide comprehensive personal accident cover of Rs 50 Lakh to 22.12 lakh healthcare providers, including community health workers and private health workers, who may have been in direct contact and care of COVID-19 patients and may be at risk.

Further, on account of the unprecedented situation, private hospital staff/retired/ volunteer/local urban bodies/contract/daily wage/ad-hoc/outsourced staff requisitioned by states/central hospitals/autonomous hospitals of central/states/UTs, AIIMS and Institute of National Importance (INI)/hospitals of Central Ministries specifically drafted for care of COVID-19 patients are also covered under the PMGKP, the government said.

Since the launch of the scheme, so far, 1905 claims of health workers who died while being deployed for COVID-19 related duties have been settled.

Meanwhile, India recorded 1,247 fresh COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, registering a huge drop of nearly 43 per cent from yesterday.

Active cases now constitute 0.03 per cent of the country’s total Positive Cases. According to the ministry, 928 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours and the cumulative tally of recovered patients (since the beginning of the pandemic) is now at 4,25,11,701 with which the country’s Covid recovery rate stands at 98.76 per cent.

The weekly positivity rate in the country currently stands at 0.34 per cent and the Daily Positivity rate is also reported to be 0.31 per cent.