NEW DELHI: In the largest ever loan for the country's health sector, the World Bank on Friday fast-tracked a $1 billion assistance for India which will help the country to bolster its fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and shore up medical infrastructure The World Bank's India Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project will help India prevent, detect, and respond to the pandemic and strengthen its public health preparedness.This new support will cover all states and union territories and address the needs of infected people, at-risk populations, medical and emergency personnel and service providers, medical and testing facilities, and national and animal health agencies. The project will immediately enable the government to scale-up efforts to limit human-to-human transmission, including reducing local transmission of cases and containing the epidemic from progressing further.In parallel, interventions to strengthen the health system will be rolled out to improve the country's capacity to respond to the COVID-19 epidemic and be better prepared to respond to emerging disease outbreaks, including transmission between humans and animals, the World Bank said in a statement.