‘Buy PPE only from approved producers’: Govt advisory

The government is working to ensure all manufacturers register with the online market place portal called ‘Government e-Marketplace (GeM)’ so that information on quality manufacturers is easily accessible for people .

The Union health ministry on Monday issued an advisory asking people to buy personal protection equipment (PPE) kits approved only by the labs identified by the government to ensure quality of kits as there have been reports of substandard kits being sold in the market.

An air passenger in PPE kit due to spread of Coronavirus in New Delhi. (Diwakar Prasad/ Hindustan Times)

“The products under reference have no relevance to the procurement being made by the Central Government. HLL Lifecare Limited (HLL), the procuring agency of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, is procuring PPE coveralls from manufacturers/suppliers only after getting their coveralls tested and approved by one of the eight labs nominated by the Ministry of Textiles (MoT) for testing the same. It is only after their products qualify in the test prescribed by the ministry’s technical committee, that they are procured,” said health ministry in a statement.

“Further, HLL is also undertaking random sampling of the supplies being made, for which a testing protocol has been devised. In case of any failure, the company is being disqualified for any supplies. All the States/UTs have been asked to ensure procurement which is being carried out at their level after following the prescribed testing for PPEs from MoT nominated labs,” it said.

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The government is also working to ensure all manufacturers, who have got their products qualified from the government approved labs, register with the online market place portal called ‘Government e-Marketplace (GeM)’ so that information on quality manufacturers is easily accessible for people .

“The manufacturers who have got PPEs qualified have been advised by the MoT to get on-board the GeM so that the procurement by States can be carried out accordingly. For the private sector also, the dynamic information of manufacturers whose products have qualified the tests is available on MoT website,” said the health ministry statement.

To ensure quality of PPE kits, the ministry of textile had last month tightened norms for permits issued to coverall makers, according to which any domestic manufacturer of a coverall applying for approval certifications will have to attach a notarised affidavit declaring that they are not traders but manufacturers, and that they understand that if they do not follow the norms, their certifications could be cancelled.