Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday informed that the state government has kept a reserve amount of Rs. 117 crore for COVID-19 vaccination. The government has received the donation towards the ‘Assam Arogya Nidhi’, to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Addressing a gathering of beneficiaries in Guwahati, Sarma said, “The amount that was collected during this hard time is kept safe with the state government for vaccination drive for the people. It will be used for buying COVID-19 vaccines.”
The minister informed that the amount that was used by the government to support the COVID-19 positive patients were used from the state health budget and not from the ‘Assam Arogya Nidhi’.
He said, “We have used money from the state revenue and health budget so far to support the positive patients, for testing COVID-19 and quarantine facilities.”
The amount in the ‘Assam Arogya Nidhi’ is also getting interest from the bank, which would help the state government, expressed Sarma.
The minister informed that so far the state government has spent money from the health budget towards treating two lakh COVID-19 positive patients. “We have spent almost thousand crores towards free quarantine of almost 3.5 lakh people who returned from across India and 40 lakh free testing for COVID-19.”
“If we look in the history, no state government has spent at this scale for their citizens. We are not one of the state but the “only” which has done at this scale, ” he added.