Union Minister of Health and Family welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan announced on Thursday that the central government has decided to reserve five seats of MBBS and BDS under the central pool for children of Covid Warriors.
The government has introduced the new category named ‘Wards of Covid warriors’.
According to Health minister, the reservation will be applicable from the academic year 2020-2021.
Central Pool MBBS seats will be allocated for selection and nominations of the candidates from amongst the wards of “COVID Warriors”, who have their lost lives due to COVID-19; or died accidentally on account of COVID-19 related duty, the minister said.
Vardhan said this move recognizes the need to glorify and honor the contributions of all those who treated and managed coronavirus patients.
The selection of the candidates will be made by Medical Council Committee(MCC). The applications will be accepted online on the basis of rank obtained in NEET-2020 which is conducted by National Testing Agency(NTA).
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The minister described definition of ‘Covid Warrior’ as laid down by Government of India while announcing the insurance package of Rs 50 lakhs for them.
Covid warriors are all public healthcare providers including community health workers, who may have to be in direct contact and care of Covid-19 patients and who may be at risk of being impacted by this. Private hospital staff and retired/volunteer/ local urban bodies/ contracted/ daily wage/ ad-hoc/ outsourced staff requisitioned by States/ Central hospitals/ autonomous hospitals of Central/ States/UTs, AIIMS and Institutes of National Importance (INIs)/ hospitals of Central Ministries drafted for Covid-19 related responsibilities are all included, going by government definition.