India expands its capacity for PPE kits, 12 domestic firms meet the norms

By Priyanka Sharma

New Delhi [India], Mar 31 : The central government is expanding its capacity to meet the demands of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits to meet the challenge posed by COVID19 and at least 12 Indian compes have also qualified the set parameters to manufacture personal protective gears for use by healthcare workers.

PPE consists of a mask, eye shields, shoe cover, gown and gloves which doctors wear while treating the patients.

These 12 Indian manufacturers have cleared the South India Textile Research Association (SITRA) test to supply PPE to the government in a time-bound manner.

"These include Sai Synergy (Gurgaon), Sure Safety (Vadodara), Amaryllis (Bangalore), SCG Enterprises (Ghaziabad), Shree Healthcare (Chennai), rut, Industries, Frontiers Protective wear, Arvind, Manchanda, Shiva Texyan Ltd, JCT Pagwara, etc," a health ministry official told .

He said they were in touch with manufacturers in Singapore who would provide over 10 lakh PPE kits and 20 lakh PPE kits would be procured from a Korean company.

According to the health ministry, 3.34 lakh PPEs are available in various hospitals across the country. The Centre has already procured and supplied 60,000 PPE kits so far. Indian Red Cross society has arranged 10,000 PPEs from China which have also been received and distributed. Also, three lakh donated PPE coveralls are to arrive by April 4. An order for 3 lakh PPEs has been placed with ordinance factories.

Also, two Indian compes from Mumbai have got the approval for manufacturing of N-95 masks.

"These compes are Venue Healthcare and Magnum who are able to supply 50,000 masks per day at the moment, but they are ramping up capacities to manufacture 1 lakh masks per day within the next week," said the official.

"As of now, we have about 11.95 lakh N95 masks in stock available in the country. In the last two days, we have distributed over 5 lakhs masks to various hospitals and 1.40 lakh masks are being distributed," said an official adding that 10 lakh masks would be part of the PPE kits being sourced from Singapore.

DRDO (Defence Research Development Orgsation) will provide about 20,000 masks per day and the supply is also expected to become available in a week's time.

( With inputs from ANI )