COVID 19 pandemic: India to manufacture 2 Crore PPE by June

With no definite remedy for the contagious virus in the foreseeable future, countries are opening up their economies but with extra care and a stronger healthcare infrastructure.

Though India implemented lockdown almost 2 months ago, the infection has continued to spiral in several states. While initially, the numbers were low due to limited test facilities, the recent surge could be attributed to India’s manufacturing capacity for personal protective equipment (PPE), for frontline healthcare workers treating COVID-19 patients, which touched 3 lakh a day. As per the recent projections, about 2 crore body coverall will be met by June-end- making India more self-reliant and strong to tackle the pandemic.

So far around 50 lakh PPE have been manufactured and around one crore PPE are expected to be produced over June, according to the Textile Ministry. The health ministry is forwarding the PPE kits to medical personnel via states.

Of 400 certified manufacturers, 100 are directly supplying to HLL Lifecare Limited, the designated single-window procurement agency. The rest are ready for taking orders from states.

With no definite remedy for the contagious virus in the foreseeable future, India has taken swift-preemptive measures and enhanced the healthcare facilities which also includes PPE for frontline healthcare workers to treat COVID-19 patients. In January, there were only 2.75 lakh PPE kits available in the nation and all of them were imported. However, thanks to favourable measures, today, we have about 15.96 lakh PPE kits available in the country.

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