Around 55% of COVID-19 emergency funds released to the States so far
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 1, 2020
As per the data provided by the central government in both the Lok Sabha & the Rajya Sabha, an amount of Rs. 4257 crores have been released to the states till date for emergency COVID-19 response of the Rs. 7774 crores provisioned for this purpose. Data also indicates that only about 2/3rd of the ventilators supplied to the states have been installed so far.
With record number of COVID-19 cases being recorded every day, India is now the second most affected country in terms of number of infected persons after the USA. As on 30 September 2020, India’s caseload crossed 62 lakhs. This includes around 9.4 lakh active cases and more than 51.87 lakh recovered cases. A total of 97,497 deaths due to the coronavirus have also been reported, according to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MoHFW).
It is necessary that States are well-equipped with the required medical supplies, infrastructure etc. especially at a time when cases are on the rise. The central government as part of the COVID-19 plan supplied equipment, medical supplies, and release funds to the states.
Earlier this year, the Central Government had approved Rs. 15,000 crore for ‘India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package’ which would be utilized in a phased manner. As per the official press release, an amount of Rs. 7,774 crores have been provisioned for immediate COVID-19 Emergency Response and the rest for medium-term support in 1-4 years.
The package was announced as an urgent response to the pandemic for developing dedicated treatment facilities, setting up of laboratories, and also for the overall enhancement of preparedness for future pandemics. The data on financial, medical and other assistance provided by Government of India to states under the COVID-19 package was recently provided in the Lok Sabha. Here are the details of what has been supplied to states under this package.
Till date, Rs. 4257 crores released to states to deal with COVID-19
The MoHFW stated in the parliament that up to 10 September 2020, a sum of Rs. 4256.79 crores was released to States/UTs for dealing with the pandemic under the India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package in two phases. This is around 55% of the Rs. 7774 crores provisioned for immediate COVID-19 response.
Among the states, Tamil Nadu received the highest share of Rs. 511.64 crores, about 12% of the total funds allocated. Maharashtra was allocated around Rs. 394 crores followed by Uttar Pradesh with Rs. 334 crores, and Kerala with given Rs 310 crores. Rajasthan (Rs. 285.01 crores), Telangana (Rs. 256.9 crores), and Delhi (Rs.255.12 crores) received more than Rs. 200 crores each. The fund allocated to the six states and Delhi together amounted to more than 55% of the total funds released till date. Combined, the eight union territories were allocated a total funding of Rs. 442.47 crores.
The states of Odisha, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand received less than Rs.100 crore each while the north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Manipur, and Meghalaya received less than Rs. 20 crores each and Mizoram, Goa, Nagaland, and Sikkim were received less than Rs. 10 crores each.
UP & Tamil Nadu received machines worth more than Rs. 10 crores
In addition to this, kits and machines were supplied to the states. Maharashtra received close to Rs. 10 crores worth 23 testing machines. Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal received machines worth Rs. 10.15 crore each. In total, testing machines worth more than Rs. 80 crores were supplied to the states.
In addition to the machines, more than Rs. 600 crores worth test kits  were supplied to states as of 11 September 2020. A total of 1.17 crore RT-PCR kits were supplied till 11 September 2020 in addition to 60.8 lakh RNA kits and 44.6 lakh VTM kits.
As of 14 September 2020, a total of 1.41 crore PPE Kits, 3.44 crore N-95 Masks, 10.84 crore Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) tablets, and 30,663 ventilators were procured by the Centre and supplied to States and central institutions. Central institutions received the lion’s share of the supplies, 11% of N-95 masks, 14% of PPE Kits, and 9.5% of the HCQ tablets. Among the states, the worst affected state of Maharashtra, which currently accounts for more than one-fifth of the cases in India received the highest share of each of the supplies.
The top five most affected states – Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Uttar Pradesh together received 29% of the N-95 masks, 28% of the PPE Kits, and more than 31% of HCQ tablets supplied by the central government.
94% ventilators allocated were delivered nationally but less than 2/3rd  installed
Of the ventilators allocated to various states by the central government, Maharashtra was allocated the highest- 4434 followed by Andhra Pradesh with 3960. Central Institutions, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Gujarat were allocated more than 2000 ventilators each while Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, West Bengal, and Assam were allocated more than 1000 ventilators each.
At the national level, nearly 93.5% of the allocated ventilators were delivered to states. A total of 25 states/UTs received 100% of the allocated ventilators including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Telangana and Assam. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu received more than 99% of the allocated ventilators whereas Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala received about 98% of it. In Punjab and Rajasthan, only around 75%of the allocated ventilators were delivered, while the central institutions received only about 58%.
While the delivery was more than 90% of the allocated numbers, less than two-thirds of the delivered ventilators were installed in the States. In terms of the percentage of installation of delivered ventilators, majority of the states (11) had installed between 50 to 70% of the delivered ventilators. Only 4 states/UT had installed above 90% the delivered ventilators, namely Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Gujarat, Goa, and Andhra Pradesh. Central institutions had installed nearly 44% of the delivered ventilators. Odisha and Assam, among the larger states, had installed less than 25% of the delivered ventilators.
Top five most affected states account for more than 50% of isolation beds, health facilities and  ICU beds
State/UT wise details of the number of health facilities, including dedicated COVID-19 hospitals, dedicated COVID-19 Health Centers and COVID-19 Care Centers were provided in response to a question in the Lok Sabha.
In total, states reported the presence of 15,249 COVID facilities in India as on 16 September 2020. Majority of these, around 3316 were in Maharashtra, and Karnataka accounted for 1842 of them while Tamil Nadu and West Bengal reported around 1200 facilities each. Among states with less than 100 facilities, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana were the only larger states. However, the number of isolation & other beds was much higher in Telangana compared to Himachal Pradesh. Telangana reported close to an average of 300 isolation beds per facility while this number was around 50 per facility in Himachal Pradesh.
All the states/UTs together reported over 15.5 lakh isolation beds of which nearly 3.5 Lakh were in Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh reported more than one lakh beds each. Together, these five states reported more than 60% of the isolation beds at the national level. It should also be noted that these five states together account for 60% of India’s COVID-19 case load.
Together, the all the states reported 2.3 Lakh Oxygen supported beds and 63,526 ICU Beds with the five states accounting for 55% of the oxygen support beds and 59% of the ICU beds. These states also accounted for 55% of the ventilators in the country.
Featured Image: COVID-19 emergency funds