The Karnali Province government is all set to arrange a budget of Rs 1 billion for the response, prevention, control, and treatment of the second wave of COVID-19.
In a press meet on Thursday, province government minister for social development Bimala KC shared that a budget of Rs 1 billion would be allocated to overcome the crisis of coronavirus pandemic and protect the lives of the people. She further informed that an arrangement has been made to transfer Rs 500 million from capital budget to COVID Fund for immediate response.
Minster KC, also the spokesperson of the provincial government, said Rs 220 million was immediately disbursed to the Province Hospital Surkhet, and Rs 120 million was released to Charajahari community hospital, district hospital, and strategic hospital for coronavirus control and health infrastructure improvement.
The arrangement has also been made to increase human resources and place antigen tests and screening in four entry points of the province.
As many as 8,302 people have so far tested positive for the coronavirus infection among 100,222 PCR tests done in the province. Among them, 760 are found to have active cases of the infection while 39 have lost their lives to the deadly virus.
Minister KC said that there are 1,950 isolation centers, 62 ICUs, 34 ventilators, and 50 HDU beds at health facilities at local levels, province hospital, Karnali Academy of Health Sciences (KAHS), and district hospitals. A mega oxygen plant has been brought into operation in KAHS and province hospital Surkhet to address the shortage of oxygen for the treatment of coronavirus infected people.
A budget of Rs 4 million each has been allocated for the setup of a mini oxygen plan in all 10 districts of the province, she shared. The arrangement has been made to supply the daily import of 150 cylinders from Nepalgunj if the province's internal capacity is not adequate.
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