In an effort to curtail the spread of covid-19 pandemic, ICICI Lombard General Health has introduced free covid-19 testing for the underprivileged.
The general insurer has partnered with Apollo Health & Lifestyle and Metropolis Healthcare to execute covid-19 tests across the country for underprivileged. As part of the exercise, it will fund the entire screening procedure, including the testing kits required for examining probable covid-19cases. The company has committed Rs.5 crore for this initiative.
A covid-19 test currently costs Rs.4,500, which includes cost of testing kit, sample collection from home, diagnosis, generating test results etc. As such, the initiative will benefit over 11,000 underprivileged citizens, who show symptoms of the virus and hence need to be tested on priority. The exercise will cover Antyodaya Ration card and BPL Ration card holders.
Bhargav Dasgupta, MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, said “In these challenging times, the underprivileged section of the society is highly vulnerable to covid-19 pandemic. Their timely screening is the first step to curtail the spread of the virus. We thought of harnessing our relationships with healthcare service providers. We believe that this should add to the government efforts towards expanding the covid-19 screening infrastructure for India’s masses.”