Centre to bring new insurance cover under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana for 'Corona warriors'

'Corona warriors' will be provided with an extended dispensation of insurance cover under 'Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana' (PMGKP). The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Monday announced the current claims under PMGKP will be settled till April 24, post that a new cover will be announced. 

The Ministry tweeted regarding the new dispensation for 'Corona warrior.'

"The claims under PMGKP will be settled by the Insurance Company till 24th of April 2021. Thereafter a new dispensation will be provided to cover the Corona Warriors, for which the Ministry is in talks with the Insurance Company (New India Assurance), tweeted Ministry of Health.

In the following tweet, the Ministry added that the scheme was announced on March 2020 and was already extended thrice till April 24, 2021. 

"Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package(PMGKP) was announced on March 2020, and was extended thrice till 24 April '21. It was launched to provide safety net to Health Workers to ensure that in case of any adversity due to #COVID19,their families are taken care of," added Ministry in another tweet.

Another tweet mentioned how this scheme has played a crucial role in enhancing morale of COVID-19 warriors. The Ministry mentioned that insurance cover of up to Rs 50 lakhs have been provided under the scheme and 287 claims have been paid to insurance company till now. 

India COVID-19 cases

The development comes at a time when India is facing a second wave of COVID-19 which is worse than the first. For past several days, the country is recording highest daily spike with latest data of 2.73 lakh fresh cases that were reported on Sunday. There are a total 1,50,61,919 COVID-19 cases. Till Monday there were 19,29,329 active cases. 

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is chairing an important meeting related to the COVID-19 situation in the country. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is planning on announcing a weekend curfew or lockdown in the national capital. States including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal, and others are continuously reporting a daily spike in COVID-19 cases.

(inputs by ANI)