How much India is ready to fight Coronavirus logistically. Although across the nation, private and public forces are working round the clock to augment India's strength it has emerged as India is too far behind and shall take months and even years to reach the desired level.
According to the planning Commission, a government stocktaking exercise has found that 3.17 lakh personal protective equipment (PPE) and 11.47 lakh N95 masks are currently available.
Central PSUs are in the process of manufacturing 40 lakh more masks — 13 lakh have been procured and 5 lakh received as a donation. According to the reports have also appeared citing Invest India estimates that the current requirement of masks in the country is 3.8 crore and PPEs is 62 lakh.
Responding to a question about the reported shortage of PPEsand masks etc, Agarwal said: "Invest India is a government body but they maynot be completely updated… We have started manufacturing and procuring PPEs,ventilators and N95 masks, and are trying to get them from abroad too. We justgot one shipment yesterday. We are making all efforts to upgrade logistics andhospitals."
"The requirement is a function of our graded response and itkeeps changing. Our strategy has been to anticipate and plan in advance…initially, PPEs were made of imported cloth that was not easily available.After many efforts, the Ministry of Textiles had a series of meetings withIndian manufacturers. We have amended PPE guidelines, keeping the virus inmind. Currently, over 10 manufacturers in India have been approved and theyhave started production. We are looking at others too," he said.
The Virus in a way has shaken up the health facilities and exposed its status. perhaps this virus will change the entire focus in the next budgetary allocation with public health shall emerge as the biggest factor than the defence.
