Govt may ask final-year MBBS students to join Covid duty, delay NEET amid crisis

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday held a virtual meet with experts on the situation of oxygen and medicine availability in view of the raging second wave of coronavirus in India.

They also discussed efforts to augment the human resource situation as the healthcare system gets pushed to the brink.

"In the meeting, many steps to incentivize students and pass-outs of medical and nursing courses to join Covid duty were taken, details of which will come out tomorrow," ANI quoted government sources.

"Decisions may include delaying NEET and incentivizing

MBBS pass-outs studying for it to join Covid duty. The decisions may also include utilizing services of final year MBBS and nursing students in Covid Duty," they added.

Sources said that that medical personnel involved in Covid-19 duty are likely to be given preference in government recruitment as well as a financial incentive.

The meeting came amid reports of healthcare personnel feeling overwhelmed in some parts of the country due to the surge in the COVID-19 cases, with testing facilities also strained.

Several states have already roped in final year medical students as coronavirus infections spike.

This comes in the backdrop of 3,92,488 more people testing positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative caseload to 1,95,57,457, said the Union health ministry on Sunday morning.