Centre has released over 890 crore rupees as the second installment of the COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package to 22 States and Union Territories.

The financial aid will be used for strengthening of public health facilities infrastructure for testing including procurement and installation of RT-PCR machines and RNA extraction kits.

The first installment of 3,000 crore rupees was released in April this year to all States and UTs to aid and enable them to ramp up testing facilities,augment hospital infrastructure,conduct surveillance activities along with procurement of essential equipment,drugs and other supplies.