Irfan Tramboo
Keeping in view gravity of the situation as well as the acute shortage of life-saving ventilators in J&K, the Government has placed orders for the procurement of at least 400 ventilators.
Official sources informed Excelsior that as there is a shortage of such lifesaving equipment on the ground, the Department of Health and Medical Education (H&ME) has placed the orders for procurement of ventilators.
The sources said that the situation will ease out from next week as the consignment will start arriving here. The situation that has emerged out of the spread of COVID-19 infection has brought the issue of the shortage of ventilators to the fore.
It was also said that the ventilators will not reach here as a single consignment owing the all-around demand as of now.
“It is a big order placed keeping in view the current demand; but not all the 400 ventilators will be delivered,” the sources said.
With regard to the distribution of the ventilators that have been ordered, it was said that these will be distributed in line with the demand on the ground.
“They will be distributed in accordance with the need keeping in view the sensitiveness of the situation,” he said.
It is pertinent to mention here that while there is an acute shortage of ventilators in J&K and particularly in Kashmir, the move of procuring more in order to mitigate the shortage is going to make the difference.
As Kashmir has got around 93 ventilators in place, but most of them are being used to deal with the situation that has arisen out of the COVID-19 outbreak. It is may be mentioned here that Jammu is also running acutely short of ventilators even after 48 new ventilators were given to the GMC Jammu in February, the strength of ventilators in Jammu is not more than 72.
With regard to the shortage of PPE kits and other protective gears, the sources informed that the procurement order has been issued. “As of now the supply chain is in distress, we are hoping that it will ease out,” he said.
The sources, informed that on Monday, they are expecting a supply of 30000 hand sanitizers, 6000 N95 masks as well as around 2 lakh triple layers masks-which will be then distributed in accordance with the requirements on the ground.
Notably, there have been issues that were faced by the medical and paramedical staff on the ground with regard to the shortage of required safety gears-particularly those who are working on the frontlines.
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