Odisha govt announces incentives for healthcare workers

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Thursday announced that it will provide incentives to health care professionals on COVID-19 duty working under the Health and Family Welfare (H&FW) Department for the period of April to July 2021.

The health care professionals include contractual, out-sourced and even volunteers.

“Additional one-month remuneration will be provided to all contractual and outsourced staff working under H&FW department, who are actively engaged in the line of COVID-19 duty and COVID vaccination work for the period from April to July 2021 as they are putting their lives into great risk in saving the lives of people in the state,” said a government document.

“In view of surge in COVID-19 cases and massive vaccination programme, it is highly essential to keep the morale of these contractual, out-sourced staffs high so as to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness,” it added.

The incentive amount will be met out of Emergency Covid Response Plan (ECRP) fund supported by the union health ministry under National Health Mission (NHM) and respective state budget scheme fund as paid in 2020.

Incentive of Rs. 1000 per month to each Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) will also be paid for the period from April to July, 2021.