Image Courtesy : www.facebook.com/drharshvardhanofficial

Union Health Ministry has taken the decision to reserve 05 seats for admissions into MBBS and BDS programmes for children of COVID-19 warriors under the Central pool for the academic session 2020-21. The 'Wards of COVID Warriors', a new category, has been introduced by the Ministry in the regulations for selection and nomination against central pool seats.

Harsh Vardhan, Union Health Minister, encouraged the step and said that this step will be aiming to honour and dignify the generous contribution made by the 'COVID Warriors' who have been affected due to the virus or died on-duty on account of COVID-19.

The selection for the candidates will be done by MCC (Medical Council Committee) via online application based on their rank in NEET 2020 held by NTA (National Testing Agency).

The COVID Warriors, as per the definition as specified by the Govt., are "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" The definition also states that the Private hospital staff and retired/ local urban bodies/ volunteer/ contracted/ adhoc/ daily wage/ outsourced staff requisitioned by central/ state/ UTs hospitals/ autonomous hospitals and Institute of National Importance/ Central Ministries' Hospitals are all included under the definition.