Centre releases financial package of Rs 890.32 crore to states to fight coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak

Amid the rising coronavirus COVID-19 cases in the country, the Centre on Thursday (August 6) released a financial package of Rs 890.32 crore to states and union territories in order to tackle the deadly pandemic.

Notably, this is the second instalment of financial package released by the Centre to fight coronavirus outbreak. The money released by the Centre will be used by 22 states and union territories to strengthen the infrastructure to tackle COVID-19.

On March 24, a fund of Rs 15,000 crore was announced which was to be given by the Center to the states. The first instalment of Rs 3,000 crore was released in April by the centre to all states and union territories. The states will be able to use this fund to procure things like beds, testing kits, etc.

Meanwhile, India registered a single-day spike of 56,282 COVID-19 cases on Thursday taking the country's tally to 19,64,536. The death toll due to coronavirus climbed to 40,699 with 904 new fatalities reported in 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry data. 

The total caseload includes the number of recoveries which has surged to 13,28,336 while are the number of active COVID-19 cases in the country is at 5,95,501. The recovery rate is at 67.61 per cent while the fatality rate has further dropped to 2.07 per cent, the positivity rate is 8.46 per cent, the data stated. 

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), a cumulative total of 2,21,49,351 samples have been tested up to August 5 with 6,64,949 samples being tested on Wednesday.