The objective of the project is to prevent, detect and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19 and to strengthen national health systems for preparedness in India. All the relevant environmental and social documents can be found at WB’s website at https://projects.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/document-detail/P173836

This project is proposed under the COVID-19 Recovery Facility. The project aims to deliver a combination of emergency response and health system capacity building efforts consistent with the COVID-19 containment plan that was recently developed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Government of India (GOI) with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners. In addition to scaling up interventions to limit human- to-human transmission, health systems strengthening interventions will be rolled out to improve the country’s capacity to respond to the COVID-19 epidemic and to be better prepared to respond to any future disease outbreaks. The project will comprise six components: Component 1: Emergency COVID-19 Response: The aim of this component is to slow and limit as much as possible the spread of COVID-19 in India. This will be achieved through providing immediate support to enhance disease detection capacities by scaling up procurement of personal protective equipment, oxygen delivery systems, and medicines. Component 2: Strengthening National and State health Systems to support Prevention and Preparedness: The component will support the GOI to build resilient health systems to provide core public health, prevention, and patient management functions to manage COVID-19 and future disease outbreaks. Component 3: Strengthening Pandemic Research and Multi-sector, National Institutions and Platforms for One Health: This component will support research on COVID-19 by Indian and other global institutions working in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research. Component 4: Community Engagement and Risk Communication: This component will address significant negative externalities expected in the event of a widespread COVID-19 outbreak and include comprehensive communication strategies. Component 5: Implementation Management, Capacity Building, Monitoring and Evaluation: Support for the strengthening of public structures for the coordination and management of the project would be provided, including MOHFW and state (decentralized) arrangements for coordination of activities, financial management, procurement, and monitoring and evaluation. Component 6: Contingent Emergency Response Component: Provision of immediate response to an eligible crisis or health emergency.