Government seeks to solve protective clothing shortage, faces criticism

By

Isabelle Crossley

Published
Mar 24, 2020

India’s healthcare staff face a shortage of protective equipment to ward off coronavirus including clothing and face masks, prompting the Ministry of Textiles recently to hold a meeting to asses options. 

 
“There is a shortage of body coveralls and N-95 masks,” read the minutes of the Ministry of Textiles meeting on March 18, accessed by the Economic Times. “There is a shortage of material and the rate of supply is not able to meet the rising demand.”
 
A senior official from the Ministry of Textiles suggested that the supply of coverall-clothing and N-95 masks should be controlled by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare at the recent meeting in the capital, ET Bureau reported.

The government has floated a tender for 725,000 body covers, 1.5 million N-95 masks, and 1 million three-ply masks through its nodal agency for procuring Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), HLL Lifecare.
 
However, some have called for HLL Lifecare to be removed as the government’s nodal agency for centralised procurement, believing this leads to delays. The All India Drug Action Network wrote to the Prime Minister to ask for the same. 
 
The Preventive Wear Manufacturer Association of India also recently criticised the government’s delay in cancelling the export of PPE goods, calling for a need for a stockpile.

“While other countries took measures to not only ban export of PPE products but also raw materials, it did not occur to India to do so till March 19,” the organisation’s chairman Sanjiiiv Relhan told ET Bureau.

“In the meantime, Indian companies continued catering to foreign governments which were stockpiling.”
 
Access to PPE will be an important aspect of India’s battle against coronavirus. Civilians are being called on to wear masks in public to prevent the spread of coronavirus and some health workers have even reported that they do not currently have ample protection.