Adequate number of PPEs, masks in India

Aditi Tandon

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Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 25

The Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 on Saturday said there was adequate supply of protective equipment and masks for frontline health workers and doctors in the country.

The statement was made during a meeting of the Group of Ministers in which a detailed technical presentation was made by the task force handling the equipment.

The GoM was informed that domestic manufactures, which had been identified earlier, have already started production of personal protective equipment

(PPE) and masks and adequate quantity of the two items was available for use.

“As on date, more than one lakh PPEs and N95 masks are being manufactured every day in the country,” the officers handling the area told the GoM, including Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Minister of State for Home Nityananda Rai, Minister of State for Shipping, Chemical and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya, and Minister of State for Health Ashwini Kumar Choubey.

“There are currently 104 domestic manufactures of PPEs, and three are making N95 masks. Production of ventilators by domestic manufacturers has started and orders have been placed for over 59,000 units through nine manufacturers,” the officers informed the GoM.

Chief of Defence Staff Bipin Rawat and chairmen of COVID empowered groups Amitabh Kant, CK Mishra, Arun K Panda, Secretary, MSME, and PD Vaghela, chairperson, Empowered Group-3 were also present in the meeting.

The meeting was held as COVID-19 cases in India touched 24,506 mark with single day addition of 1,429. So far 775 people have died of the virus, while 5,062 people have been cured of the disease.

The GoM reviewed the status of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, response and management, and also had detailed deliberations on the measures taken as on date by the Centre, states and UTs for its prevention and containment.

The GoM also noted that the country had been successful in controlling the fatalities due to coronavirus, with the death rate a little over 3 per cent and recovery rate improving daily.

“After the lockdown, cases are doubling at 9.1 days,” highlighted the presentations made to the GoM. It added, India’s initial strategy has delivered.

The government is now moving towards district-level containment with each DM asked to formulate a district plan.

So far, 80 districts have reported a new case in 14 days, while 15 have not reported a case in the last 28 days.

The GoM also reviewed the testing strategy and availability of testing kits across the country along with the strategy for hotspots and cluster management. The group was briefed about the number of public (over 260) and private labs (over 70) presently testing for COVID-19 along with the number of tests that are being conducted every day through this network of labs.

India has so far conducted over five lakh tests and despite the expansion in testing the rate of COVID-19 positive cases has remained stable at 4.5 per cent, indicating the flattening of the disease curve.

The GoM also thanked 92,000 NGOs, self-help groups and other civil society organisations which were providing food to the migrant workers across states.

These NGOs are being supported by the states and are being allotted funds from State Disaster Relief Fund. FCI is providing food grains at subsidised cost.