Himachal govt announces incentives for ASHA workers for contributing to COVID-19 fight

Additional Chief Secretary (Health) to Himachal Pradesh Government RD Dhiman on Tuesday said that an additional incentive of Rs 1,000 per month shall be admissible to all ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers in the state for the period from March 2020 to June 2020.

As many as 7,834 Asha workers in Himachal Pradesh

In a notification, Dhiman stated, "Keeping in view the dedicated efforts of ASHA workers in the containment of COVID-19 in the State of Himachal Pradesh, an additional incentive of Rs 1000 per month shall be admissible to all ASHA in the State for the period from March 2020 to June 2020."

While disclosing this, an official spokesman of the State Government said that the ASHA workers of the State would get Rs 4000 per month for four months, ANI reported. He said that an amount of Rs 3.2 crore would be spent on providing this additional incentive to the ASHA workers. This decision comes amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

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During this period the Asha workers have played an important role in finding the active cases, they reached door to door to reach the people in order to collect the data of the disease, travel history etc. Now in coordination with civic bodies and PRIs, they are working to guide people on home quarantine with travel history. As many as 7834 Asha workers currently working in the State and a total of Rs 3.8 crore will be spent on this initiative.

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Ten more people tested positive for the novel Coronavirus in Himachal Pradesh, taking the number of cases to 234 on Tuesday.  There are 161 active cases of the Covid-19 in the state and 61 people have recovered so far, R D Dhiman said.

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