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Govt ramps up manufacturing capacity of key medical items
From entirely importing all these items a couple of months ago, India is now manufacturing more than 100,000 PPE kits and N-95 masks each day in the country.
India has ramped up its domestic manufacturing capacity of some essential medical items needed in managing coronavirus disease (Covid-19), and it is placing orders for ventilators, personal protection equipment (PPE) and even respiratory masks with many domestic manufacturers, a health ministry official said on condition of anonymity.
From entirely importing all these items a couple of months ago, India is now manufacturing more than 100,000 PPE kits and N-95 masks each day in the country.
About 104 domestic manufactures of PPE, and three companies that make N95 masks, have been identified. Nine domestic manufacturers have also been identified to make ventilators, and they have already started production to cater to the government’s order of 59,000 units, the official added.
“Earlier everything was imported, but now, we have managed to build an ecosystem wherein these products are being manufactured domestically. It may still be some time before these units manufacture the numbers required to meet our requirement but we have made a great start,” the official said.
Union health minister, Harsh Vardhan, chaired the 13th high-level meeting on Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) of the group of ministers (GoM) on Saturday. The group reviewed the adequacy of isolation beds, wards, personal protection equipment (PPE), N-95 masks, drugs, ventilators, oxygen cylinders and other equipment.
The health minister also said that India has been saved from getting into the stage three of transmission, which is the community transmission stage where getting to the source of infection is near impossible.
“We are prepared to deal with any kind of situation; in fact, we are over prepared. There is no shortage of any medical equipment anywhere,” said Harsh Vardhan.
