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Around 32,000 patients have received treatment for coronavirus infection across the country in the past six months of the outbreak under the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, the government stated.
According to the Hindustan Times, 335,000 cashless COVID-19 tests have also been performed during the same period.
Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana, a union government's health programme, provides free access to healthcare for people in the country. Apart from primary healthcare facilities, it also aims to provide secondary and tertiary care hospitalization to the beneficiaries across public and private empanelled/enlisted hospitals in India.
It reportedly provides financial risk protection to over 53 crore Indians from economically and socially disadvantaged backgrounds by assuring them health cover to avail cashless treatment.
"..whenever I got an opportunity to go outside India and be a part of any forum, I found that every country would look up to India and give example of Ayushman Bharat scheme as a successful implementation of healthcare initiative," said Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday, September 22.
He chaired the virtual press conference, 'Aarogya Manthan' 2.0, to celebrate the second anniversary of the country's largest healthcare scheme.
The Central government earlier announced that a total of 43,022 health and wellness centres had become operational during the initial months of the coronavirus-induced lockdown in different parts of the country to ensure that an array of healthcare facilities reaches the masses.
Dr Harsh Vardhan added that the benefits of the scheme will soon be extended to groups such as manual scavengers and truck drivers, among others through convergence with other central health schemes.
"The focus this year will be on expanding the reach of the PMJAY network and services to other left-out population groups such as manual scavengers, road traffic victims, truck drivers, among others through convergence with other Central health schemes," he said.
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