Centre provided 6.03 lakh PPE kits, 5,806 ventilators to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh

The ministry in a response to Hyderabad based Society for Safety of public and Good Governance, an independent body, informed that a total 3.19 lakh PPE kits and 4406 ventilators were transported to the state of Andhra Pradesh.

However, the maximum 14.83 lakh, the highest number of PPE kits went to Maharashtra which also saw the maximum COVID positive caseload in the country followed by Uttar Pradesh (14.72 lakhs), Gujarat(11.58 lakhs) and Delhi(9.11 lakh).

The RTI also revealed that as on 3^rd December 2020, a total of 1,38,648 deaths due to COVID-19 have been reported by state and UTs.

However, it is pertinent to mention here is earlier in November, the Telangana Public Health and Family Welfare Department claimed that it does not have information with regard to procurement and supply of PPE kits by the Telangana government. To recall Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao announced to the people that the state was in a process to procure 5 lakh PPEs.

Ventilators:

The centre said 4,434 ventilators, the highest number was provided Maharashtra State which has the reported a high number of COVID deaths, followed by Andhra Pradesh(4406 ventilators) Uttar Pradesh(3025) and Gujarat(3000 ventilators).

Though, it is pertaining to note that Gujarat which has lower COVID cases than 14 states and deaths than 8 states was given more PPE kits and Ventilators.

The central government in total has provided 21.78 lakhs PPE kits and 2546 ventilators to the central institutions.

In the month of April when the COVID spread was steadily going up, the country was falling sort of PPE kits. The central government decided to procure 15 million PPE kits from China and distribute amongst the state.

Though, the first batch of 50,000 PPE kits failed the quality tests as per Indian standard. Later, along with the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), many companies in the country started to manufacture PPE kits.