PM directs officials to ensure steady supply of PPEs, ventilators to fight COVID-19

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday reviewed the countrywide preparedness toward tackling the COVID-19 outbreak and issued directions to officials to ensure sufficient availability of medical equipment such as ventilators, coveralls and masks for healthcare workers.

The Prime Minister “also directed the concerned groups and officials to ensure sufficient production, procurement and availability of all essential medical equipment such as PPEs, masks, gloves and ventilators,” the Prime Minister’s Office said.

The directions were given at a joint meeting of the Empowered Groups constituted to plan and ensure the implementation of COVID-19 response activities across the country convened by the Prime Minister on Saturday.

Modi reviewed countrywide preparedness regarding the availability of hospitals, proper isolation and quarantine facilities as well as disease surveillance, testing and critical care training,” the PMO said.

The Prime Minister also reviewed disease surveillance, testing and critical care training and also directed the concerned groups and officials to ensure sufficient production, procurement and availability of all essential medical equipment such as PPEs, masks, gloves and ventilators.

Centre has ramped up domestic manufacturing of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medical equipment, including ventilators, to meet the increasing demand from healthcare workers fighting COVID-19.

While the Defence Research and Development Organisation has been roped in to manufacture N-95 mask, self-help groups across the country have also taken up production of face masks under the Rural Development Ministry’s National Rural Livelihood Mission.

Ventilator manufacturers have teamed up with automobile giants to ramp up production of the crucial lifesaving devices that keep COVID-19 patients in a critical condition breathing.

As many as 12 domestic manufacturers have cleared quality tests for manufacturing PPE and would provide 2.6 million kits.

Besides, medical equipment was also being sourced from China with Air India operating cargo flights to Shanghai on Saturday and Sunday.