'Arunachal to upgrade Health sector': Chief Minister Pema Khandu

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ITANAGAR: "Our government has decided to upgrade all the districts with the best of health infrastructure with updated equipments in the next two years and earmarked an amount of Rs 400 crore for the purpose," said Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu adding that manpower requirement would also be looked after.

Addressing the media here on Wednesday, the Chief Minister pointed out that the government had already sanctioned 400 posts of nurses under National Health Mission (NHM) and the recruitment process for 350 nurses completed so far in various phases.

"The government has already placed orders for 30 ambulances; and 42 more are in the pipeline to cater to the needs of the Health department," Khandu said, adding that to manage the COVID-19 caseload, the newly constructed MLA apartment at Chimpu had been converted into a COVID Care Hospital with 42-bedded capacity including ICUs intially which would be ready by August 10 next.

"Depending on the emerging situation, we are also planning to convert the MLA apartment into a 300-bedded dedicated COVID Hospital," he added. Till Wednesday, the State reported 1,790 COVID-19 cases with 682 being active cases. On the positive side, while 1,105 people have recovered from the disease; three others have succumbed to the infection.

Khandu also informed that the Dedicated COVID Health Centre (DCHC) at Midphu will be inaugurated on August 7, 2020.

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