India Fights Covid-19

COVID-19 Vaccination Update

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As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, Government of India has been supporting the States and UTs by providing them COVID Vaccines free of cost. In addition, the Govt. of India has also been facilitating direct procurement of vaccines by the States/UTs. Vaccination is an integral pillar of the comprehensive strategy of Government of India for containment and management of the pandemic, along with Test, Track, Treat and COVID Appropriate Behaviour.

Implementation of the Liberalized and Accelerated Phase-3 Strategy of Covid-19 Vaccination has started from 1st May 2021.

Under the Strategy, gin every month 50% of the total Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) cleared vaccine doses of any manufacturer would be procured by Govt. of India. It would continue to make these doses available to the State Govts totally free of cost as was being done earlier.

More than 26 crore (26,64,84,350) vaccine doses have been provided to States/UTs so far, through Government of India (free of cost channel) and through direct state procurement category.

Of this, the total consumption, including wastages is 25,12,66,637 doses (as per data available at 8 AM today).

More than 1.53 crore (1,53,79,233) COVID Vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered.

Furthermore, more than 4 lakh (4,48,760) vaccine doses are in the pipeline and will be received by the States/UTs within the next 3 days.

COVID-19 Vaccination Update

| Published on:

As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, Government of India has been supporting the States and UTs by providing them COVID Vaccines free of cost. In addition, the Govt. of India has also been facilitating direct procurement of vaccines by the States/UTs. Vaccination is an integral pillar of the comprehensive strategy of Government of India for containment and management of the pandemic, along with Test, Track, Treat and COVID Appropriate Behaviour.

Implementation of the Liberalized and Accelerated Phase-3 Strategy of Covid-19 Vaccination has started from 1st May 2021.

Under the Strategy, in every month 50% of the total Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) cleared vaccine doses of any manufacturer would be procured by Govt. of India. It would continue to make these doses available to the State Govts totally free of cost as was being done earlier.

More than 25.87 crore (25,87,41,810) vaccine doses have been provided to States/UTs so far, through Government of India (free of cost channel) and through direct state procurement category.

Of this, the total consumption, including wastages is 24,76,58,855 doses (as per data available at 8 AM today).

More than 1.12 crore (1,12,41,187) COVID Vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered.

Furthermore, more than 10 lakh (10,81,300) vaccine doses are in the pipeline and will be received by the States/UTs within the next 3 days.

Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurate the 200 oxygenated bed COVID Hospital 

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Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gasand Steel Shri Dharmendra Pradhan and Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan today inaugurated the temporary COVID Hospital at Bina in Sagar district of the state. The 200 Oxygenated bed jumbo Covid-19 care facility has come up near BPCL’s Bina refinery, for which Oxygen is provided by Bharat Oman Refineries Limited, a 100% subsidiary of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL).

A Vaccination centre was also inaugurated on this occasionwhich is being set up by BORL for providing vaccination to all frontline workers and their families without any cost. BORL has taken initiative of providing vaccination to all contract workers working in the refinery and front line workers.

Both the dignitaries also laid foundation stone for Oxygen Bottling and refilling plant. The plant will have capacity to bottle about 25 T/Day of oxygen (2000 oxygen cylinders/day) and will cater to the oxygen requirement of surrounding district hospitals.

Ministers in the state of MP Shri Gopal Bhargav, Shri Bhuppendra Singh, Shri Govind Singh Rajput, Dr Arvind Singh Bhadoria, MP from Sagar  Shri Rajbahadur Singh, Bina MLA Shri Mahesh Rai were among those present on the occasion.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan said that Bina refinery will support the hospital by diverting 10 ton per day of gaseous oxygen of 90% purity and supplying 4 lakh litres of drinking water per day. Lauding the BPCL’s efforts, he said that Bina refinery is committed to strengthen the overall preparedness of the hospital for combating Covid-19 effectively.

Congratulating the Chief Minister and his team for the Covid management model of the state in controlling the pandemic, Shri Pradhan said that in 50 districts of MP the positivity rate has fallen below 1%..Calling the Covid-19 pandemic as once in a century crisis, he said that the Government of India is taking relentless efforts to fight against the second surge of COVID 19 and save lives under the leadership of hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.He said that Vaccination is the best option to protect from the Covid, and also prevent its third wave in the country. The Free Vaccine for All campaign will be launched from 21st June. He said that there will ne shortage of vaccines in the country soon.

Dr Jitendra Singh called for Public Awareness Campaigns about the co-relation between Diabetes and COVID

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Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh, who is also a former Professor of Diabetes and Medicine besides being the Life Patron of the coveted RSSDI (Research Society for Study of Diabetes in India), said today that there is need for more public awareness about the correlation between Diabetes and COVID, as there are certain misgivings about the cause and effect relationship between the two.

Delivering the inaugural address, as chief guest, at the ” Diabetes India” World Congress-2021, Dr Jitendra Singh said, like in many other fields, even in academics, COVID has prompted us to discover new norms in adversity, which is visibly evident in the success of an international conference like this of such a big magnitude.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, over the last two decades, India has seen a surge in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, which has now acquired pan-Indian proportions. Type 2 Diabetes, which was till two decades ago prevalent mostly in South India, is today equally rampant in North India and at the same time,it has also moved from metros, cities and urban areas to rural hinterland.

He also flagged off the need for a series of COVID-Diabetes academic meets to create awareness.

While Corona has taught us to live with new norms, Dr Jitendra Singh said, it has also given the physicians a cue to emphasize on the various pharmacological as well as non-pharmacological methods of management, which had somehow lost due importance in recent years. He noted, even after the COVID pandemic is over, the discipline of social distancing and avoiding droplet infection will act as safeguard against many other infections, particularly for those who have underlying Diabetes.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, those suffering from Diabetes have an immuno-compromised status, which tends to reduce their resistance and make them more vulnerable to Corona like infections as well as consequent complications. This, he said, may lead to vulnerable situation when a patient suffering from Diabetes also has kidney involvement or diabetic-nephropathy, chronic kidney disease etc. However, he hastened to add that there is no room for panic, because the basic rules of strict glycemic control of blood sugar levels and safeguards against target organ damage, which are otherwise also practised in diabetes, are equally applicable even during the pandemic.

Dr Jitendra Singh emphasised, what is important to understand is that while every diabetic need not necessarily get COVID, at the same time every COVID infection may not necessarily lead to complications in case of a diabetic.

Dr Jitendra Singh also fondly remembered Founder President of DiabetesIndia Late Prof. Shaukat M. Sadikot and said that his legacy continues with the aim to spread education and awareness about Diabetes in India.

In his address, Dr Akhtar Hussain, President Elect, International Diabetes Federation said that India is the second most affected country after China so far diabetes is concerned and the number of patients are witnessing continuous surge in the past few years. He also warned that in the post COVID era, complications are going to grow.

Dr Jitendra Singh also virtually presented awards to several doctors from all parts of the country for their pioneering work in the field of Diabetes. He complimented renowned Endocrinologist Dr Shashank Joshi from Mumbai, Dr. Banshi Saboo from Ahmedabad, Dr Anoop Mishra, Trustee Diabetes India, Dr S.R. Aravind, President Diabetes India and the entire team of organizers for having brought together the best of faculty from as many as four continents of the world.

COVID-19 Vaccination Update

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As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, Government of India has been supporting the States and UTs by providing them COVID Vaccines free of cost. In addition, the Govt. of India has also been facilitating direct procurement of vaccines by the States/UTs. Vaccination is an integral pillar of the comprehensive strategy of Government of India for containment and management of the pandemic, along with Test, Track, Treat and COVID Appropriate Behaviour.

Implementation of the Liberalized and Accelerated Phase-3 Strategy of Covid-19 Vaccination has started from 1st May 2021.

Under the Strategy, in every month 50% of the total Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) cleared vaccine doses of any manufacturer would be procured by Govt. of India. It would continue to make these doses available to the State Govts totally free of cost as was being done earlier.

More than 24 crore (24,65,44,060) vaccine doses have been provided to States/UTs so far, through Government of India (free of cost channel) and through direct state procurement category.

Of this, the total consumption, including wastages is 23,47,43,489 doses (as per data available at 8 AM today).

More than 1.19 crore (1,19,46,925) COVID Vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered.

Dr Harsh Vardhan chairs 28th meeting of Group of Ministers (GOM) on COVID-19

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Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare chaired the 28th meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 by a video-conference, here today. He was joined by Dr. S. Jaishankar, Ministry of External Affairs, Shri Hardeep S. Puri, Union Minister for Housing & Urban Affairs (I/C); Civil Aviation (I/C); & MoS Commerce & Industry, Shri Nityanand Rai, Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs and Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State, Health & Family Welfare.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan gave a snapshot of India’s efforts to contain COVID-19 at the outset: “The recovery rate has been climbing up and stands at 93.94% today. In the last 24 hours we have had the least number of Daily New cases in the last 61 days with just over 1 Lakh cases (1,00,636). 1,74,399 recoveries were registered in the last 24 hours and our case fatality rate has been 1.20%. Today is the 25th day in succession where our daily recoveries outnumbered new cases.”

Speaking on vaccines and clinical intervention, Dr. Harsh Vardhan observed, “Till today morning, we have administered 23,27,86,482 vaccine doses to our countrymen in various categories. Talking specifically about the 18-44 age group, the first dose has been given to 2,86,18,514 people. As of today, over 1.4 Cr doses are still available with the states.” Talking about other categories, he noted that first doses have been given to 6,06,75,796 people in the above 60+ category and 7,10,44,966 in the 45-59 age group.

On the testing front, the Union Health Minister noted that “as of 7th June morning, we have conducted over 36.6 crore (36,63,34,111) tests so far and over 15 lakh tests yesterday despite being a holiday. The labs for testing purposes have also gone up to 2,624. Daily Positivity Rate has also been declining and is at 6.34% and even though this is less than 10% positivity rate for 14 consecutive days, there still are 15 states where the daily positivity rate is greater than 10%.”

In the second wave, we see that continuously daily cases are declining and are outnumbered by new recoveries 83% of active cases are in 10 states and the remaining 17% in 26 states/UTs. 7 States/UTs (Delhi, Madhya pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand) have less than thousand cases. 5 State/UTs (Jammu, Punjab, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh) have less than two thousand cases. Even the most affected states like Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu have observed decline in the number of cases at a significant rate. Growth rate has declined from 14.7% (5th May) to 3.48% (today).

He also noted, “INSACOG sequencing labs are looking at the mutants which have significant potential of severely affecting the disease transmission. As of now, 10 National labs under INSACOG have sequenced around 30 thousand samples. 18 more labs have been added to the consortium recently to boost the capacity of sequencing.”

Dr. Harsh Vardhan praised the collaboration between Centre and the States in flagging emerging cases of Mucormycosis. So far, 28,252 cases have been reported from 28 states. Out of these, 86% (24,370 cases) have a history of Covid-19 infection and 62.3% (17,601) have a history of diabetes. Maharashtra has reported the maximum number of Mucormycosis cases (6,339) followed by Gujarat (5,486).

Speaking at the meeting, Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State, Health & Family Welfare said that efforts should be made to overcome vaccine hesitancy. People should be encouraged to take vaccines as it is a vital tool to fight Covid-19.

Dr. V K Paul, Member Health, NITI Ayog presented a brief snapshot of the Vaccination status, preparedness for pediatric Covid 19 care, and the way forward to prevent the Third Wave at the Conference. He mentioned that India took 141 days to reach 23 Crore mark in terms of  cumulative doses administered, which remains the second highest in the world after the US, which did in 134 days. Also, India is one of the world’s fastest countries in terms of number of doses administered so far. Out of 88.7 Crore people who have been administered at least one dose globally, India accounts for 17.9 crore, which is 20.2 Percentage of the global coverage. He remarked that India is fully prepared to deal with pediatric Covid 19 care but caution remains the key as we deescalate. He expressed hope that the third Wave can be prevented if we continue following the Covid Appropriate Behaviour.

Shri. Giridhar Aramane ,Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways gave an Overview of Oxygen availability in the country and measures taken to ramp up the production and supply Chain. He mentioned that various initiatives have been undertaken to enhance Oxygen availability and distribution through increase in production capacity, setting up of Pressure Swing Adsorption plants, import of LMO & oxygen concentrators He remarked that Oxygen production has increased from 5,700 MT in Aug’20 to 9,500+ MT in May’21 and around 1,718 PSA plants (1,213 under PM Cares by MoHFW & DRDO, 108 by MoPNG, 40 by MoCoal, 25 by MoPower, 19 from Foreign Aid and 313 by State Governments) are being established. Further,  he highlighted that procurement of 1 lakh Oxygen Concentrators have been sanctioned under PM Cares Fund and an Oxygen Digital Tracking System (ODTS) – A Web and App based Tracking System has been developed to enable real time tracking of LMO movement in the country.

Chairman, EG-8 and Secy I&B Shri Amit Khare gave a brief snapshot of the Communication Paradigm of the Country. He praised all Central Ministries/PSUs/Autonomous Bodies and good work of State Governments /Districts / PRIs for their “Whole  Government” approach in battling this deadly disease. He emphasised the need to focus on Rural and Tribal Areas and involving community Leaders and Local Influencers, Frontline workers, Co-operatives, Panchayat Raj representatives and FMCG companies / Retail outlets / Trade Bodies in driving the message of Covid Appropriate Behaviour. He also highlighted the extensive work done by the Media Units of I&B such as PIB, AIR, DDNews and regional units in keeping the masses informed with authentic information. As a way forward, he advised to focus on emerging issues like COVID appropriate behaviour post vaccination, Black/White fungus, long term physical and mental care of COVID-affected, Orphaned Children and maintain overall Positive atmosphere

Dr. Vinod K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog , Shri Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary, Shri Amit Khare, Secretary, Information and Broadcasting, Shri Giridhar Armane,,Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Ms. S. Aparna, Secretary (Pharma), Dr. Balram Bhargava, Secretary (Health Research) & DG (ICMR) and other senior Government officials participated through video conference.

COVID-19 Vaccination Update

| Published on:

As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, Government of India has been supporting the States and UTs by providing them COVID Vaccines free of cost. In addition, the Govt. of India has also been facilitating direct procurement of vaccines by the States/UTs. Vaccination is an integral pillar of the comprehensive strategy of Government of India for containment and management of the pandemic, along with Test, Track, Treat and COVID Appropriate Behaviour.

Implementation of the Liberalized and Accelerated Phase-3 Strategy of Covid-19 Vaccination has started from 1st May 2021.

Under the Strategy, in every month 50% of the total Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) cleared vaccine doses of any manufacturer would be procured by Govt. of India. It would continue to make these doses available to the State Govts totally free of cost as was being done earlier.

More than 24 crore (24,60,80,900) vaccine doses have been provided to States/UTs so far, through Government of India (free of cost channel) and through direct state procurement category.

Of this, the total consumption, including wastages is 23,11,69,251 doses (as per data available at 8 AM today).

More than 1.49 crore (1,49,11,649) COVID Vaccine doses are still available with the States/UTs to be administered.

COVID-19 Vaccination Update

| Published on:

As part of the nationwide vaccination drive, Government of India has been supporting the States and UTs by providing them COVID Vaccines free of cost. In addition, the Govt. of India has also been facilitating direct procurement of vaccines by the States/UTs. Vaccination is an integral pillar of the comprehensive strategy of Government of India for containment and management of the pandemic, along with Test, Track, Treat and COVID Appropriate Behaviour.

Implementation of the Liberalized and Accelerated Phase-3 Strategy of Covid-19 Vaccination has started from 1st May 2021.

Under the Strategy, in every month 50% of the total Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) cleared vaccine doses of any manufacturer would be procured by Govt. of India. It would continue to make these doses available to the State Govts totally free of cost as was being done earlier.

Government of India has so far provided, both through the free of cost category and through direct state procurement category, more than 24 crore vaccine doses (24,60,80,900) to States/UTs.

Of this, the total consumption, including wastages is 22,96,95,199 doses (as per data available at 8 AM today).

More than 1.63 crore COVID Vaccine doses (1,63,85,701) are still available with the States/UTs to be administered.

Gangwar reiterates India’s committment towards countering the impact of Covid-19 pandemic

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Union Minister of State (i/c) for  Labour and Employment Shri Santosh Gangwar has reiterated India’s committment towards making all possible efforts to counter the impact of the pandemic, and emerge stronger. Addressing the virtual Non-Aligned Movement  Labour Ministers Meeting under 109th Session of the ILC here last evening, Shri Gangwar said, the world has witnessed loss of lives and livelihood, slowdown of economies, adverse impact on the entire sections of the society and especially, the weaker ones more unsafe. He said, there is need to ensure better support to the health-care systems, social protection and employment generation. Governments are required to deal with the pandemic and provide an effective response at policy levels, to balance business continuity, income security and above everything, well-being of all, he added.

The Minister informed that India has undertaken a massive vaccination drive, and a total of 223 Million vaccines have been administered so far. He said, there have been extra-ordinary changes in the lives and livelihoods and new approach should be developed for the style of the work. Use of digital platforms has posed challenges but also provided more opportunities. He added that India has made legal framework for social security of Gig and Platform workers also.

Shri Gangwar said, employment being an important aspect, India is putting key efforts through various schemes and programmes to provide  employment and support on health and financial fronts also. India has launched Aatmnirbhar Bharat package for self- reliance worth Rs. 27 Thousand Billion to strengthen the economy, which also include payment of EPF contributions upto 24% of wages by the Government, in respect of eligible new employees. Further,  collateral free loans worth Rs. Nine Thousand Billion have been disbursed under MUDRA Yojana in last three years, having around 70% accounts of women.

The Minister added that increase in daily wages, under Mahatma Gandhi NAREGA scheme for rural India, has resulted in employment generation of 3.9 billion man days during last financial year alone.

Under ‘PMGKP: Insurance Scheme for Health Workers Fighting COVID-19’

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The Government of India has been on the forefront of the fight against COVID19 and has been supporting the efforts of States and UTs under the ‘Whole of Government” approach. In this endeavour, the Union Government had already extended the ‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) Insurance Scheme for Health Workers Fighting COVID-19’ for one year w.e.f 24.04.2021.

Safety of the Frontline Healthcare providers remains the top priority of the Central Government and therefore the Central Government had revived this insurance policy for a period of one year so as to continue to provide the safety net to the dependents of  health workers, who are deputed to take care of COVID-19 patients.

‘Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) Insurance Scheme for Health Workers Fighting COVID-19’ was launched w.e.f. 30.03.2020 initially for a period of 90 days to provide comprehensive personal accident cover of Rs. 50 lakh to all healthcare providers, including community health workers and private health workers drafted  by the government for the care of Covid-19 patients and  for those who may have come in direct contact of COVID-19 patients and were at risk of being impacted by it. The scheme is being implemented through an Insurance policy from New India Assurance Company (NIACL). The insurance policy has been extended twice so far.

States and other stakeholders had been raising the matter that the processing of the insurance claims was getting delayed. In order to cut down on these delays and to further streamline and simplify the processing of the insurance claims, it has been decided to start a new system for approval of claims as per which the due diligence will be done by State Governments at the level of District Collector. The District Collector in each case will be certifying that the claim is in accordance with SoP of the Scheme. On the basis of this certificate of the Collector, Insurance Company will approve and settle the claims within a period of 48 hours. Further, for the sake of uniformity and prompt disposal, the District Collector will also do due diligence and certify the claims even in case of Central Government hospitals/ AIIMS/ Railways etc.

​The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has informed all States Governments and UT Administrations about this new system which comes into effect immediately.

EPFO allows its members to avail second COVID-19 advance

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To support its subscribers during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic, EPFO has now allowed its members to avail second non-refundable COVID-19 advance. The provision for special withdrawal to meet the financial need of members during pandemic was introduced in March 2020, under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY). An amendment to this effect was made by Ministry of Labour & Employment in Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme, 1952 by inserting therein sub-para (3) under paragraph 68L, through notification in the Official Gazette.

Under this provision, non-refundable withdrawal to the extent of the basic wages and dearness allowances for three months or up to 75% of the amount standing to member’s credit in the EPF account, whichever is less, is provided. Members can apply for lesser amount also.

The COVID-19 advance has been a great help to the EPF members during the pandemic, especially for those having monthly wages of less than Rs. 15,000. As on date, EPFO has settled more than 76.31 lakh COVID-19 advance claims thereby disbursing a total of Rs. 18,698.15 crore.

During the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, ‘mucormycosis’ or black fungus has been declared an epidemic recently. In such trying times, EPFO endeavours to lend a helping hand to its members by meeting their financial needs. Members who have already availed the first COVID-19 advance can now opt for a second advance also. The provision and process for withdrawal of second COVID-19 advance is same as in the case of first advance.

Considering urgent need of members for financial support in these trying times, it has been decided to accord top priority to COVID-19 claims. EPFO is committed to settle these claims within three days of their receipt. For this, EPFO has deployed a system driven auto-claim settlement process in respect of all such members whose KYC requirements is complete in all respects. Auto-mode of settlement enables EPFO to reduce the claim settlement cycle to just 3 days as against the statutory requirement to settle the claims within 20 days.

Labour Ministry announces major social security relief to dependents of workers passing away due to COVID-19

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The Ministry of Labour and Employment has announced additional benefits for workers through ESIC and EPFO schemes to address the fear and anxiety of workers about well-being of their family members due to increase in incidences of death due to COVID -19 pandemic. Enhanced social security is sought to be provided to the workers without any additional cost to the employer.
Currently for the Insured Persons (IPs) under ESIC, after death or disablement of the IP due to employment injury a pension equivalent to 90% of average daily wage drawn by the worker is available to the spouse and widowed mother for life long and for children till they attain the age of 25 years. For the female child, the benefit is available till her marriage.
To support the families of Insured Persons (IP) under the ESIC scheme, it has been decided that, all dependent family members of IPs who have been registered in the online portal of the ESIC prior to their diagnosis of COVID disease and subsequent death due to the disease, will be entitled to receive the same benefits and in the same scale as received by the dependents of insured persons who die as a result of employment injury, subject to the following eligibility conditions:
a. The IP must have been registered on the ESIC online portal at least three months prior to the diagnosis of COVID disease resulting in death.
b. The IP must have been employed for wages and contributions for at least 78 days should have been paid or payable in respect of deceased IP during a period of one year immediately preceding the diagnosis of COVID disease resulting in death
The IPs, who fulfill the eligibility conditions, and have died due to COVID disease, their dependants will be entitled to receive monthly payment @90% of average daily wages of the insured person during their life. The scheme will be effective for a period of two years from 24.03.2020.
Under the EPFO’s Employees’ Deposit Linked Insurance Scheme all surviving dependent family members of the members of this scheme are eligible to avail benefits of EDLI in case of death in harness of the member. At present under this scheme, the benefits extended in case of death of a worker are no requirement of minimum service for payment of Gratuity, family pension is paid as per provisions under EPF & MP Act, sickness benefit of 70% of wages for 91 days in a year is paid in the event of worker falling sick and not attending office.
A notification issued by the Ministry  has made following amendments to this:
a. Amount of maximum benefit has been increased from 6 lakhs to 7 lakhs to the family members of deceased employee.
b. Minimum assurance benefit of ₹2.5 lakh to eligible family members of deceased employees who was a member for a continuous period of 12 months in one or more establishments preceding his death in place of existing provision of continuous employment in the same establishment for 12 months. It will benefit contractual/casual labourers were losing out on benefits due to condition of continuous one year in one establishment.
c. Restoration of provision of minimum 2.5 lakh compensation retrospectively, i.e., from 15th February 2020.
d. In coming 3 years, the actuary has estimated that eligible family members will get an additional benefit of Rs. 2185 crore from EDLI fund in the years 2021-22 to 2023-24.
e. Number of claims on account of death under the scheme has been estimated to be about 50,000 families per year including increase in claims taking into account estimated death of about 10,000 workers, which may occur due to Covid.
These welfare measures will provide the much needed support to the families of workers who have died due to the COVID-19 disease and will protect them from financial hardships in these challenging times of pandemic.