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Govt ropes in local firms to boost supply of PPEs
The Hindustan latex Limited, under the health ministry, is looking at the procurement of all PPEs including medical equipment like ventilators, while the textile ministry is supplying PPE with textile material.
The government is working to increase the production of personal protective equipment (PPE) with the textiles ministry roping in domestic companies to ramp up supply of coveralls and N95 masks, crucial for healthcare workers against Covid-19, a official said on Wednesday.
The ministry, under its technical textiles arm, is now working with 16 companies, a second official added. “Orders of 3.3 million coveralls and five million N95 masks have been placed with these manufacturers. While 1.9 million masks have come in, the supply of overalls have been slow as it needs more specifications,” the second official said.
“Supply of coveralls have just started this week, and less than 500,000 have come in,” the official added.
In a release on March 30, the government said the textiles and health ministry have been able to ensure the supplying 6,000-7,000 coveralls per day. “... this is expected to go up to 15,000 per day within the next week,” read the release.
The Hindustan latex Limited, under the health ministry, is looking at the procurement of all PPEs including medical equipment like ventilators, while the textile ministry is supplying PPE with textile material. This involves masks, both of N95 and surgical 2/3-ply ones, and coveralls with meltblown material, which is a special kind of polymer.
The manufactured product is sent by the ministry to the Coimbatore-based South India Textile Research Association (SITRA) for test specifications. SITRA chairman Prakash Vasudevan told HT that the scarcity of meltblown fabric producers was one of the key reasons for the PPE shortage. “Meltblown material has a general shortage of supply around the world, and the pandemic has made matters worse,” he said.
