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Centre bars states buying medical devices directly

KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 4/10/2020 12:51:37 AM

NEW DELHI, Apr 9: The Health Ministry has barred the state governments from procuring the personal protection equipment (PPE), masks, gloves and ventilators on their own and asked them to send their fortnightly requirements to it to supply them from the national pool.
Some states have already placed orders abroad for some of these medical devices to speed up the purchases for their fight against the coronavirus and they are perturbed at the central ministry trying to control the supplies without giving any justifiable reason. Politics in time of pandemic, asked a critic, noting that the states are ordering the testing kits in large number after finding limited supplies by the Centre.
The ministry says in a circular that this will enable the Centre to aggregate the demand and come up with a specific figure on a national basis. It says the states may not go for procurement of the crucial medical equipments but allow their procurement centrally.
The circular claimed certain states are holding sufficient stock of the material while the field functionaries complain that they are not getting the needed equipment. It also asked the states to quantify the oxygen cylinders available in their jurisdiction to ensure they are available sufficiently for the management of the Covid patients.
It also stressed that many ventilators lying in the states may not be in working condition and so the state health department should put them in working conditions at the earliest.