State facing financial stress due to coronavirus pandemic: Assam CM

DISPUR | AUGUST 30, 2020:

Assam Finance and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday announced that due to the huge expenditure in handling COVID-19, the financial status is distressed and will withdraw a host of freebies given to its patients.

He announced the withdrawal of some of the non-chargeable services offered to Covid-19 patients like dropping them at their homes after discharge from hospitals and levied charges on dedicated cabins.

If anyone wishes to get the result of RT-PCR tests in government hospitals within 24 hours, then it will be charged at Rs 2,200 at the government hospitals. Rs 6000 will have to be paid by anyone from private hospitals needing plasma, Sarma told a press conference.

The Health Minister also requested the patients to bring their own food while being admitted to government hospitals as arranging food for all might be difficult in the coming days. But the government will continue to feed the BPL or poor Covid-19 patients.

"We made a calculation that till yesterday we had one lakh patients. If the patients are staying in a government hospital for 10 days, that means it will be 10 lakh in headcount. If we are spending Rs 500 per day, then it becomes a Rs 500 crore affair.

Assam has recorded a total of 1,01,367 coronavirus cases of which 26,646 have been reported from Guwahati city alone. At present, 20,008 patients are still being treated.

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