Well-stocked Gurugram civic body shares protective gear

Officials of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) on Wednesday said they have sufficient stock of gloves, masks and personal protective equipment (PPE), and have started sharing the gear with Mewat and Faridabad, where there is a shortage. Last week, the municipal corporation distributed over 10,000 masks and gloves, each, to the local administration and municipal bodies of Mewat and Faridabad.

Officials of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) on Wednesday said they have sufficient stock of gloves, masks and personal protective equipment (PPE), and have started sharing the gear with Mewat and Faridabad, where there is a shortage. Last week, the municipal corporation distributed over 10,000 masks and gloves, each, to the local administration and municipal bodies of Mewat and Faridabad.

Gurugram, India- April 21: A Grand Arch staff member chemically disinfects the entrance gate during lockdown against coronavirus, at The Grand Arch, Sector 58, in Gurugram, India, on 21 April 2020. (Yogendra Kumar/HT PHOTO)

Since March 25, the MCG has been storing protective gear at its central facility in Sector 42. As per a report on April 20, a copy of which is with HT, the civic body has 550,000 hand gloves, 250,000 face masks, 15,000 hand sanitizers and 1,600 PPE kits.

Besides these, the MCG also has a stock of around 7,500 litres of sodium hypochlorite solution, 260 bodysuits, 2,400 eye care glasses, 500 pieces of face shields, 200 dead body kits, and 1,000 pieces each of head and shoe covers.

MCG officials said that they have, so far, issued over 300,000 gloves and masks, each. MCG officials said they have been able to maintain a stock due to advance preparation and fewer coronavirus cases in Gururgam, compared to neighbouring Delhi. Gurugram has so far recorded 45 cases of the coronavirus disease, in comparison to 2,248 confirmed cases in Delhi, as of Tuesday.

“We made advance preparations to combat the coronavirus disease and started stocking up in early March. Simultaneously, we also appealed to private companies to donate such items under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative, and managed to procure a large stock of items over time from them,” said Attri.

He said that since the central store was opened, protective equipment has been largely dispatched to adjoining districts of Faridabad and Mewat.

“Last week, we distributed over 10,000 masks and gloves, each, to the local administration and municipal bodies of Mewat and Faridabad, where their supply was running low. Even within the city, the few times there has been a requirement, we have distributed items immediately. We ensured that we are in a position where there will be ample supply to initiate preventive measures against the spread of the infection if the situation in the city worsens on the lines of Delhi, where the cases have been higher in number,” said Attri, who said that the MCG is also open to sharing stock with other cities that have a requirement.