The Centre is trying to procure 10 lakh personal protective equipment (PPE) from several countries via the Ministry of External Affairs, government officials told THE WEEK. Several countries battling the COVID-19 pandemic are facing a shortage of PPE for their medical staff.
Even as doctors across India have been agitating for masks, gloves and other PPE requirements, government officials on Saturday conceded that there was a "shortage" of PPE, because no one could have anticipated such a huge requirement.
"In India, most of the PPE is imported, and hospitals were only ordering as per routine requirement. With COVID-19, however, the demand has skyrocketed," the senior official said, requesting anonymity.
Under flak from doctors and public health experts for the PPE shortage, the government is going all out to procure masks, gloves, protective goggles and hazmat suits.
According to sources, on January 29, the health ministry wrote a letter to the ministry of textiles to alert them to start work on making PPEs indigenously.
In the subsequent weeks, several meetings were conducted with industry bodies such as CII, FICCI, specialised textile manufacturers and Delhi's local suppliers.
"On January 31, we also banned the export of PPE. In these meetings, we asked several manufacturers to make PPE based on our specifications. However, only DuPont agreed to give us some PPE," the official said. An inter-ministerial team also scouted across the country to inspect various manufacturing units, collected samples and tested them.
On March 18, after a meeting with indigenous bodies such as Association of Medical Device Industry and Preventive Wear Manufacturer Association of India, samples from indigenous manufacturers were tested and approved, and many have now started production. However, government officials stressed on "rational" use of equipment based on health ministry guidelines.
"In the beginning, we noticed that those working at the Manesar and the ITBP's Chawla camp were changing their masks frequently, at times, thrice a day. We then counselled them to use it rationally," the official added.
