SHILLONG: The Centre on Monday despatched 5000 N-95 masks and 1500 personal protective equipment (PPE) to the state, a day after the state government made the request for the items.
State Health Minister AL Hek told reporters here that Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan called him on Monday informing him about the articles being sent.
Hek had written to the Union minister on Sunday requesting for more masks, PPEs and ventilators.
“He has also taken personal initiative to ensure the materials reach the state at the earliest”, Hek said. The minister also said that he was monitoring the situation and calling the health officials all the districts for daily updates on COVID-19.
According to Hek, there are 39 isolation beds with ventilators, 460 isolation beds without ventilators, 90 quarantine beds and 180 beds in corona-care centres in the state.
As far as training of medical officers is concerned, he said that 470 of them have been trained, followed by 1500 paramedical staff, 4381 ASHA workers, 1743 ANM workers, 257 ASHA facilitators and 1875 and 178 civil defence and home guard personnel respectively.
“The overall situation is being monitored by me on a daily basis and appropriate directions are being issued from time to time to the officials of the Health department so as to be prepared to combat the menace of the COVID 19 pandemic,” he said.
So far, the state government has issued 2072 PPEs to the district and 200 are in stock.
Similarly, 228200 three-ply masks have been issued and 58600 are in stock.
He informed that 3619 hand sanitisers have also been issued and 636 are in stock. Besides, 12275 alcohol-based hand sanitisers have been distributed while 38800 are remaining.
Hek also said the HDFC Bank has offered to provide medical aid and equipment to the state. Accordingly, the minister has submitted the list of medical aid and equipment which the state requires urgently.
