As the coronavirus crisis sweeps across the country, the central government of India had earmarked Rs 2,000 crore from PM Cares Fund to provide 50,000 ventilators to states and union territories to fight the scourge of raging Covid-19 outbreak in the country. As of now, 2,923 ventilators have been manufactured and 1,340 delivered. The government will soon augment the capacities of the states and the union territories by providing them with 14,000 ventilators.
All the ventilators sourced by the central government are ‘Made in India’. “Out of the 50,000 ventilators, 30,000 ventilators are being manufactured by M/s Bharat Electronics Limited. The remaining 20,000 ventilators are being manufactured by AgVa Healthcare (10000), AMTZ Basic (5650), AMTZ High End (4000) and Allied Medical (350),” the press release by the Press Information Bureau said.
#PMCaresFund Trust has allocated Rs. 2000 crore for supply of 50,000 #MadeInIndia ventilators to government run #COVID hospitals in all States/UTs.
— PIB India (@PIB_India) June 23, 2020
Further, a sum of Rs. 1000 crore has been allocated for the welfare of migrant labourers.
◾https://t.co/0bf3JDfa7o#Covid_19
The press release further said that 2,923 ventilators have been manufactured so far, out of which 1,340 have already been handed over to the states and union territories. The recipients of the ventilators include Maharashtra (275), Delhi (275), Gujarat (175), Bihar (100), Karnataka (90), Rajasthan (75). The statement says that by the end of June 2020, additional 14,000 will be delivered to the states and the union territories.
Besides, an amount of Rs 1,000 crore has been released to the states for the welfare of the migrant labourers. “The distribution of the fund is based on the formula of 50% weightage for the population as per 2011 census, 40% weightage for number of positive COVID-19 cases and 10 % for equal distribution among all the States/UTs. This assistance is to be used for arranging accommodation, food, medical treatment and transportation of the migrants,” the press release said.
The prominent beneficiaries of the grant from the central government are Maharashtra (181 cr), Uttar Pradesh (103 cr), Tamil Nadu (83 cr), Gujarat (66 cr), Delhi (55 cr), West Bengal (53 cr), Bihar (51 cr), Madhya Pradesh (50 cr), Rajasthan (50 cr) and Karnataka (34 cr).
India’s ventilators count set to double
Earlier, the central government had announced that the government will procure 50,000 ventilators with the money that have been donated to the PM Cares fund. More importantly, the ventilators will be manufactured under the ‘Make in India’ programme. A total of Rs. 2000 crore was allocated for the same.
The number of ventilators to be purchased with the money from the PM CARES Fund assumes even greater significance when the number of ventilators that were available hitherto. According to estimates published by the Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy (CDDEP) and the Princeton University, India had a total of 47,481 ventilators as of the 20th of April, 2020.
Thus, the ventilators purchased using the funds under PM CARES, the total number of ventilators in India will reach almost 1 lakh. This means, more than double the existing capacity will be added. India would more than double the number of ventilators available to the medical fraternity to combat the Wuhan Coronavirus in a matter of months. This is entirely unprecedented.
