The Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) Fund Trust will finance two 500-bed COVID-19 makeshift hospitals in Bihar.
PM Modi announced on Monday, the PMO in tweets said: “PM-CARES Fund Trust has decided to allocate funds for fight against COVID-19 by way of establishment of 500-bed COVID-19 Makeshift Hospitals at Patna and Muzaffarpur, Bihar by DRDO.”
These hospitals have 125 ICU beds with ventilators and 375 normal beds each, it said, adding that each bed also has oxygen supply.
Doctors and paramedical staff for the hospitals will be provided by the Armed Forces Medical Services, it added.
Relief comes amid increasing cases of Coronavirus in Bihar, so far more than one lakh patients in the state have recovered. The state’s positive rate has also come down to just 1.97 percent. A total of 24 lakh 94 thousand 712 samples have been investigated so far in the state. Out of which one lakh 23 thousand 383 patients have been found to be corona positive.
Bihar, which is headed for assembly polls in a few months, is among the states with large numbers of Covid cases.
In a review meeting on August 11, PM Modi had noted that 10 states, including Bihar, account for over 80 per cent of country’s active Covid-19 cases, and asserted if the virus is defeated in these states, the country will emerge victorious in its fight against the pandemic.
The PM-CARES Fund was set up on March 27, 2020 as an emergency measure for disaster relief during the coronavirus pandemic. The fund consists entirely of voluntary contributions from individuals/organizations and does not get any budgetary support.
Earlier, Supreme Court rejected the peal to transfer the funds of PM-CARES to NDRF saying, adding that funds collected by the PM Cares Fund are those of charitable trusts and “entirely different”. The government is free to transfer money to the disaster response fund if it feels it is appropriate to do so.
In a petition NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), had claimed that PM CARES Fund was set up in violation of the legal mandate under the Disaster Management Act.