The production capacity of PPE coveralls in India has been ramped up to one lakh per day with half of the production taking place in Bangalore, the Ministry of Health informed in a press briefing on Sunday.
Personal Protective Equipment or PPEs are a set of protective clothes which enable frontline workers like doctors, nurses and paramedics to look after Covid-19 patients despite the disease being highly contagious.
The PPEs have stringent technical requirements as prescribed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare meant for high level of protection of health professionals.
The set includes face masks, gowns, gloves, goggles headgear etc. which provides a complete coverall to the person’s body and prevents infections despite close proximity with the diseased.
‘Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Department of Pharmaceuticals, and Ministry of Textiles are continuously working with various industry bodies, stakeholders and manufacturers on 24X7 basis, to streamline the supply chain remove bottlenecks and maintain a steady supply of all materials required for the healthcare professionals,’ an official statement said.
Bangalore has emerged as the hub for PPE production. Besides Bangalore, Tirupur, Chennai and Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, Ahmedabad and Vadodara in Gujarat, Phagwara and Ludhiana in Punjab, Kusumnagar and Bhiwandi in Maharashtra, Dungarpur in Rajasthan, Kolkata, Delhi, Noida, Gurugram and few other places are also manufacturing PPE coveralls at approved production units.
On March 2, the health ministry finalized the technical requirements based on the availability of materials and the technical requirement for the best protection of healthcare professionals who deal with Covid-19 cases.
The synthetic Blood Penetration or Splash Resistance test is a synthetic Blood resistance test to determine a product’s ability to act as a barrier to blood-borne pathogens. The test is conducted on PPE coveralls and certification for the Body coveralls is carried out in four facilities across the country.
These are South Indian Textile Research Association (SITRA), Coimbatore, Defence Research and Development Establishment ( DRDE), Gwalior and two laboratories under Ordnance Factory Board -Heavy Vehicles Factory, Avadi and Small Arms Factory, Kanpur.
With the number of COVID-19 cases crossing 28000 in India and more than 800 deaths, the danger of Doctors and other healthcare professionals contacting the virus is also augmenting. More than three million cases world has posed severe demands for this essential protective equipment.
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