NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday (March 24, 2020) directed all state governments to deploy funds to establish additional medical facilities to boost the medical infrastructure of the country in order to contain the spread of Coronavirus pandemic. According to a press release from the Centre, additional facilities including hospitals, clinical labs, isolation wards should be set up by these funds. 


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Apart from this the Centre also directed the states to upgrade and expand existing facilities and ensure all facilities are sufficiently equipped with ventilators, personal protective equipment (PPE), masks and drugs to treat the patients. 



Earlier in the day, the Centre provided relief to the country's informal sector amid the coronavirus lockdown. Santosh Kumar Gangwar, MoS, Ministry of Labour and Employment, issued an advisory to all states & UTs to transfer funds in the account of construction workers through DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) mode from the cess fund collected by the Labour Welfare Boards. 


Prior to the Centre's announcement, several states have already announced monetary relief to daily wage workers.


Meanwhile, coronavirus cases crossed 500 and one more death from the infection reported taking the toll to ten, as the Centre on Tuesday asked the states and union territories to clamp curfew wherever necessary in the wake of people defying lockdown orders in several parts of the country.


As 32 states and union territories announced complete lockdown till March 31 to deal with the pandemic, authorities are taking a serious view of people continuing to venture out despite the lockdown considering that the coming days and weeks are going to be extremely crucial to contain the spread of the viral infection.


With the coronavirus lockdown hitting the Indian industry hard and causing job losses, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said an economic package to help tide over the crisis will be announced very soon.


Sitharaman told reporters an announcement on the package would be made sooner than later. Two states - Punjab and Maharashtra - and a UT - Puducherry - have already declared curfew in their respective areas. States like Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday decided to expand the lockdown to cover the entire state.


In Maharashtra, a 65-year-old coronavirus patient died in Mumbai, taking the death toll due to COVID-19 to three in the metropolis. The western state has accounted for 101 of the total 492 cases followed by Kerala (91). The man recently returned from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Ahmedabad. He later complained of fever, cough and difficulty in breathing, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said in a statement.


The patient was brought to the Kasturba Hospital in Mumbai on March 20 for treatment, but his health condition deteriorated further. The man also had pre-existing ailments, including high blood pressure and severe diabetes, the statement said, adding he died late Monday evening.


According to the data updated on Tuesday morning, the total number of COVID-19 cases rose to 492, including 446 active cases. The figure includes 41 foreign nationals. Cases of a few more persons having tested positive for the infection were reported during the day.


The earlier nine deaths were recorded in Maharashtra (2), Bihar, Karnataka, Delhi, Gujarat and Punjab, West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh. Thirty-seven people have been cured/discharged/migrated, according to the official data.


As cases of the viral infection surged, authorities have put almost the entire country under lockdown, banning gathering of people and suspending road, rail and air traffic in unprecedented steps till March 31. In Delhi, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan reviewed the status of containment and management of COVID-19 in the country and emphasised on the quality and sturdiness of the community surveillance and contact tracing.