The State government has fixed the rate for antigen COVID-19 tests in private labs at ₹2,000 for government referred cases and ₹3,000 if individuals choose to do it at their own will, said a press release issued by the Medical Education Department.
Besides this, other decisions taken in the task force committee meeting include hiking salaries of doctors and nurses, which is applicable for the next six months. With this, AYUSH doctors will get monthly salary of ₹48,000, MBBS doctors ₹80,000 and nurses ₹30,000 per month for next 6 months.
Another decision taken by the committee is to supply Remdesivir - an anti-viral drug - to private hospitals to check black marketing and hoarding. Some of the other decisions taken include supplying 4 lakh antigen test kit and 5 lakh swab test kits to ramp up testing, approval for additional drugs for treatment of COVID-19 patients.
Following allegations of corruption in several procurements by the Opposition party members, a committee will be formed to supervise and recommend purchase of equipment and medicines for COVID-19 treatment. The committee will be headed by Additional Chief Secretary of the IT and BT department. Besides, the committee has also decided to provide N-95 masks and PPE kits for healthcare workers and ensure that oxygen pipeline is connected to 4,736 beds in 17 government medical colleges. In order to meet a target of 50,000 tests per day, 16 RTPCR and 15 Automated RNA extraction units will be established.
