UP Govt announces 25% extra salary for healthcare staff on COVID duty

Following a COVID review meeting in the state, the Uttar Pradesh Government has announced a 25 per cent additional salary for doctors and nurses on COVID duty at its hospitals across the state. The initiative will also cover other frontline health workers and sanitation workers like paramedics, housekeeping staff, Anganwadi and social health activists or ASHA workers. They are expected to receive the additional salary even if they are/have been off-duty during the isolation period post their duty. 

Additionally, it was announced that the state will call in final year medical students and nursing students to assist on COVID duty and they too will be eligible for the honorarium. They are expected to be engaged on a contract basis at 25 per cent higher rates than the current national health mission (NHM) rates. Similarly, the Government hopes to appeal to retired health workers, doctors and former servicemen to help bring the crisis under control. They too will be paid a certain honorarium for their efforts.  Sportspersons and sports celebrities are also expected to be engaged to create more awareness around safe practices and champion public-awareness campaigns on COVID-19.  

The move overtly acknowledges the unwavering and invaluable efforts of the frontline workers and is expected to motivate healthcare workers who have been stretched without respite. 

Similarly, staff members of the Pt Bhagwat Dayal Sharma University of Health Sciences (UHS) and the PGIMS in Haryana had been promised double salary to healthcare workers engaged in COVID duty however, the staff were forced to protest on the campus last week, demanding normal their salary for the month of March.