The Centre is likely to call MBBS final year students for COVID-19 duty.
This decision is likely to be taken by the Centre to overcome shortage of healthcare personnel as India battles the second wave of COVID-19.
A COVID-19 review meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday to take stock of the efforts taken to contain the surge in COVID-19 cases in the Country.
“In the meeting, many steps to incentivize students and pass-outs of medical and nursing courses to join COVID duty were taken, details of which will come out tomorrow,” reports quoted sources as saying.
“Decisions may include delaying the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and incentivising MBBS pass-outs studying for it to join COVID duty. The decisions may also include utilising the services of final year MBBS and nursing students in Covid Duty. Medical personnel on COVID-19 duty will be given preference in government recruitment as well as a financial incentive,” sources added.
The government expects to make 10,000 oxygenated beds available in a short period of time.
“In order to ramp up oxygen supplies, the Government is working on converting nitrogen plants into oxygen plants. Potential industries where current nitrogen plants could be spared, are being identified and converted,” PM Modi informed.
As many as 3.92 lakh fresh COVID-19 cases were logged in India on Sunday.
Moreover, the country logged as many as 3,689 deaths on Sunday.
The Haryana Government has announced a total lockdown for 7 days.
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The 7-day complete lockdown in Haryana will come into force from tomorrow (Monday, May 3).
The Odisha government on Sunday also announced a 14-day lockdown in the state, starting from May 5 to May 19.