Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday heaped praise on the doctors’ community and acknowledged their big contribution in the ongoing battle against Covid-19.
Describing doctors as being like “God”, Modi paid tributes to all who lost their lives while treating coronavirus patients.
“Despite the limitations of long-neglected medical infrastructure and pressure of population, India’s per lakh population rate of infection and death rate is still manageable compared to even developed countries.
“Loss of lives is always painful but many lives have been saved too. Credit goes to hard-working doctors, healthcare workers, frontline workers for saving many lives,” the prime minister said on the ‘ National Doctors’ Day’.
Drawing attention to renewed focus on the health sector, Modi said that his government has allocated more than two lakh crore for the health sector in the ongoing financial year. “We have come up with a Credit Guarantee Scheme of Rs 50,000 crores to strengthen the health infrastructure in such areas, where there is a lack of health facilities,” said the Prime Minister.
“After decades since independence, we all know how medical infrastructure was neglected... and what state it was in. During the first wave, the government had allocated 15,000 crores as a special fund to increase the health infrastructure in the nation,” said Modi. Pointing to incidents of attacks on doctors on Covid19 duty by the relatives of patients, Prime Minister said the government is committed for the safety of doctors.
He mentioned stringent laws that have been brought in for preventing violence against doctors. Along with this, a free insurance cover scheme has been brought for the Covid warriors, according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office
The PM praised the medical fraternity for raising awareness about the COVID-19 vaccination drive. He also commended the medical fraternity for spreading awareness about Yoga.
“Work for propagating Yoga, that should have been done in the last century after Independence, is being done now, said the Prime Minister. He praised the doctors for giving their time to the evidence-based studies on the benefits of yoga for dealing with post-Covid complications,” said the statement.