India needs about Rs 26,000 billion to combat Covid-19: ICMR report
The New Indian Express 13 June 2020 By: Sumi Sukanya Dutta A whopping 6.2% of the country’s GDP is required to fight the Covid-19 pandemic in India with intensified public measures, a report by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said. Considering that Union health ministry’s budget is 1.3 per cent of the GDP and the Centre has pledged Rs 150 billion towards the public health crisis so far. This means that the cost of Covid-19 care could be nearly five times the annual allocation for health budget and 75 times the money dedicated currently towards the disease management. In absolute number that means, cost of Covid-19 management in the country could be Rs 25,534 billion or US $339 billion. The report “A Model-Based Analysis for COVID-19 Pandemic in India: Implications for Health Systems and Policy for Low- and Middle-Income Countries” has also noted that “in the event of a lockdown for 8 weeks, the peak of the epidemic shifts by 34-76 days, and the ...