Observing that there was shortage in supply of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits all over the world, the State government on Thursday submitted to Telangana High Court that already an order was placed to procure 3,31,798 such kits. The government received 47,603 kits. Vendors are likely to supply the remaining shortly, the government told in an interim report filed before the High Court, which was hearing a PIL plea on measures taken by the government to combat COVID-19 pandemic.
By April 6, central medicine stores and hospitals in the State had 28,184 PPE kits. By tapping local manufacturers, the government placed an order with them to make PPE kits, the report said. Order was given to secure 6,89,390 units of N95 masks. Till now, 86,390 such masks were received. Central medicine stores and hospitals all over the State have stocks of 73,227 such masks.
The government was also procuring 53 lakh of three-ply surgical masks. While 25.50 lakh of such masks were received, the remaining are likely to be received soon, the report said. The government has a stock of 10.34 lakh surgical gloves, in addition to the 23 lakh examination gloves already available with it. Telangana Medical Services Infrastructure Development Corporation is monitoring supply of all these items.
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There is no dearth of any essential commodity to the general public during lockdown as supply chain of all shops and establishments was being maintained. People are allowed to procure their daily needs. However, their movement is restricted within 3 km radius of homes.
Hearing the PIL plea, the bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice T. Amarnath Goud perused the interim report. The bench noted that there was high demand all over the world for N95 masks to be used by doctors and para-medical staff attending on COVID-19 affected persons. Observing that the State government cannot be blamed for the gap in demand and supply of the masks, the bench instructed the government to file another detailed report by April 15 explaining the measures being taken to combat the pandemic.