New Delhi: India has become the second-largest personal protective equipment (PPE) kits manufacturer in the last four months, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday while inaugurating the three more high tech state of the art testing labs for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal.
Modi said that the right decisions taken at the right time led India to be in a better position as compared to other countries to fight coronavirus.
Modi inaugurated Covid-19 testing labs in Noida, Mumbai and Kolkata on Monday through video conferencing.
Speaking on the occasion, he said, “Crores of people are fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. Today we launched three high tech testing labs, which will help West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.”
He said that Delhi-NCR, Kolkata and Mumbai are big economic centres and here youths come to make their careers and fulfil their dreams. Modi said that with the launch of three more throughput testing labs, India will test 10,000 more samples every day.
India on Monday recorded the highest single-day spike of 49,931 cases in 24 hours with the total tally of the Covid-19 reaching 14,35,453 cases, out of which 9,17,568 have been cured.
The Prime Minister said, “These high tech labs will not be specific for Covid-19 and in future, it will be for Hepatitis B, Dengue, HIV. These tests will also be done here.”
Hailing the decisions of his government to combat the spread of the Covid-19, Modi said, “It is because India took right decisions at the right time that it is in a better position as compared to other countries.”
“The fatalities in India due to Covid-19 is less as compared to other countries and the recovery rate is much higher and it is improving day by day,” Modi said.
Despite crossing the 14 lakh mark on Monday, the recovery rate in India is 63.92 per cent.
Modi said that the number of people getting cured of Covid-19 is almost 10 lakh. “That is why in the beginning the central government announced Rs 15,000 crore package, for isolation centres, Covid-19 centres, testing and tracing. India has improved its facilities,” Modi said.
The Prime Minister said that now India has more than 11,000 Covid-19 facilities and more than 11 lakh Covid-19 beds. “In January we had only one centre in India for Covid-19 testing and now we have 1,300 labs across the country. More than five lakh tests are being done every day. And in the coming days we are trying to get 10 lakh tests,” he said.
Modi emphasised that the government focused on saving the lives of every Indian getting infected with Covid-19 and “this has given a good result”.
Pointing out at the production of PPE kits and face masks, Modi said, “what India has done is a big success story”.
“Now India is the second biggest manufacturer of PPE kits. Six months ago not a single PPE manufacturing unit was there and now today we have more than 1,200 manufacturers who are producing more than 5 lakh kits,” Modi said.
He also said that earlier India imported N95 masks from other countries and now three lakh masks are being manufactured in India daily. He also said that earlier India was dependent on other countries for ventilators and now we have developed the system for manufacturing of three lakh ventilators in India.