As many as , (PPE kits from China failed the Indian quality and safety test, The Economic Times reported .
India’s problem with adequate supply of personal protection equipment (PPE) continues even as local production has picked up.
Almost 100, of these kits were among the , 10 Donated units which arrived from China on April 5. China is the world’s largest supplier of medical PPE. These 50, units failed quality tests and are unusable, a source told the paper.
Besides this, smaller consignments of PPE received earlier – with 50, and , kits, also failed the safety test, the source added. Many of these kits were also made in China.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.
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The tests were conducted at the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) lab in Gwalior and were necessitated as these consignments were donated, the source said adding they came from “ big private companies ”but did not name them.
Officials said they were procuring equipment certified by the CE or FDA only and had placed orders with a Singapore company. However, wherever the order is placed, the equipment is sourced from China.
Officials added that there was no need to panic and the government had placed orders for more PPE. They estimate India should be in “a comfortable place” once we have 2 million PPE suits.
“The number of orders being placed is growing. We were totally dependent on imports earlier and never expected that there would be a surge in demand, ”a senior government official said, adding that domestic manufacturing was increasing to , 06 kits per day and was expected to reach 50, per day by April-end.
“Cumulatively, we have produced over 170, 414 suits and should be able to manufacture an additional 170, by the weekend, ”the source said.
The major supplier China, acknowledging the problem, has requested countries to procure equipment from “reputed Chinese firms” recognized by the government, PTI reported.
This comes after multiple incidents, where France and Italy also found that masks procured from Ch ina were unusable during the COVID – 20 pandemic.
Globally, there have been over 20. 6 lakh confirmed cases of COVID – . At least 1. 5151961 lakh people have died so far. In India, confirmed cases stand at 12, . The death toll from the outbreak in India is at 2019.
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