How Many Ventilators are There in India as COVID-19 Cases Spike?

How Many Ventilators are There in India as COVID-19 Cases Spike?
Rising cases of coronavirus frighten hospitals with insufficient ventilators.
How Many Ventilators are There in India as COVID-19 Cases Spike?
Rising cases of coronavirus frighten hospitals with insufficient ventilators.

As COVID-19 cases are on the spike across the globe, it has already infected more than 13,387 people in India as on April 17, 2020. Realising the grim situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged medical device manufacturers in our country to boost the production of ventilators in the country. 

Here is putting together on the total ventilators in India and how much they cost. 

Price of ventilator

Currently, ventilators are manufactured at the costs of Rs 5-7 lakh. However, the price of the overseas machine with the same feature will be between Rs 11 lakh to Rs 18 lakh.

A patient suffering from the novel coronavirus generally suffer from respiratory ailments. Ventilators are required to help them in breathing. Hence, seeing the importance of ventilators at the moment, the government asked major medical device makers in the country to collect information on the availability of ventilators in India. The meeting was chaired by Ravinder, Joint Secretary, Technical Committee for Ventilators, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPITT), under the Ministry of Commerce.

AgVa Healthcare to make 5,000 ventilators

The government has also urged Noida-based med-tech start-up AgVa Healthcare to make 5,000 ventilators by the end of this month to help the hospitals to handle the situation in a better way as the number of coronavirus cases is increasing by the day. Hence, ventilators are the demand of the time to save the life of affected people of COVID-19.

Ban on ventilator export

To meet the ongoing shortage of ventilators, the Union government on Tuesday decided to ban the export of ventilators and other ICU equipment with immediate effect as the demand in the country is increasing.

AgVa installs 600 ventilators

Diwakar Vaish, co-founder, AgVa Healthcare known for making a cost-effective ventilator, said, “We are working on manufacturing 20,000 units in the next 30 days”. Currently, 600 AgVa ventilators have been installed in different hospitals of the country, especially in Tier-II and III cities.

Govt asks firms to make ventilators

The government of India has invited some of the major firms such as Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Motors and Hyundai to venture into manufacturing of ventilators. Responding positively to such suggestion by the GOI, Mahindra and Mahindra has announced that it has indigenously developed a low-cost ventilator worth Rs 7,500 and is talking to two PSUs in this sector for developing it further.

Maruti ties up with AgVA

King Kong of car maker company in India, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, is set to tie up with AgVA Healthcare to manufacture up to 10,000 ventilators per month to fulfil the increasing demand of this device.

AgVa Healthcare, a well-known company in producing ventilators, would share its experience and knowledge in the production of ventilators.

Ventilators availability not adequate

The availability of ventilators in the country is abysmal. As per a report by Brookings, India needs over 110,000 to 220,000 ventilators by May in the wake of the deadly COVID-19 outbreak. But there is an acute shortage of ventilators in the country to meet the demand. Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Union Health Ministry said, “We have given an order to a PSU to provide 10,000 ventilators. Bharati Electronics Limited (BEL) has also been requested to purchase 30,000 additional ventilators in 1-2 months”.

AIMED to produce 5,500 units monthly

“We can provide around 5,500 units locally every month with the present set of manufacturers,” said Rajiv Nath, who heads the Association of Indian Medical Device Industry (AIMED), the lobby of medical device makers in India. The discussion is going on between AIMED and the other nine manufacturers to boost the production around 5,500-5,750 pieces per month.

Officials review situation

Some of the major suppliers of the nation have cleared the air that there is a shortage of ventilators stock as the demand has been increasing worldwide amid COVID-19. Some of the companies are citing that they have sent ventilators to other countries in the wake of growing demand. Officials of the Union Health ministry reviewed the situation with around six to seven major international and national suppliers to know their supply position, producing capacity and the feasibility of importing ventilators as well.

Depend on imported equipment

As per the estimate shared by Medikabazaar, the ventilator market of India is valued at approximately Rs 500 crore. Out of the total equipment, 75 per cent is imported while the remaining 25 per cent of machines are manufactured in the country.

Several companies are trying their best to manufacture ventilators in the country with limited resources to meet the much-needed demand. They are looking to produce the device from other components like X-Ray machines and infusion pumps.

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