In a major boost against nation’s fight against Covid-19 pandemic, India is set to domestically produce 2 million Covid-19 testing kits a month from May, reports The Times of India.
The figure of 2 million includes 1 million each of the RT-PCR testing kits and the rapid antibody detection kits. This major production capacity would greatly reduce the nation's dependence on imports even as the global demands for testing kits continues to surge.
Furthermore, the Government machinery is also working to enhance the capacity of ventilators manufacturing in India. Present capacity stands at 6,000 ventilators a month. The developments come as the Governments at the Centre and the States have established dedicate Covid-19 facilities to deal with confirmed cases.
It should be noted that as of Friday, the Governments had already set up a total of 1,919 dedicated Covid-19 facilities across the nation, with a capacity of 1,73,746 isolation beds, and 21,806 intensive care unit (ICU) beds. Of the 1,919 dedicated facilities, 672 are hospitals for serious cases needing tertiary care, while 1,247 are dedicated healthcare centres for patients with moderate symptoms.
"Production of ancillary support devices such as personal protective equipment, oxygen concentrators, ventilators, CSIR engineering labs is being augmented by indigenous designs of Sree Chitra Tiurumalai Institute of Medical Science and Technology (SCTIMST) under Department of Science and Technology," said Indian Health Ministry joint secretary Lav Agarwal.
