"Ensure availability of PPEs and sanitizers for all health workers"- Anil Jotwani

"Our government and front-liners are doing a great job at controlling the transmission of infection. But considering the over-populated clusters in our country, it will take quite a while for us to test, identify and treat to make India COVID-19 free.

1. Urgent need to increase the testing capabilities: WHO has been emphasizing on the need to test, test and test. And sadly, we are amongst the countries who are testing very little. While the private labs have now been allowed to screen patients, we need to further expand these capabilities.
2. Unrestricted movement of essential healthcare goods : Though the Government has declared that availability of essential services won’t be affected during the lockdown, district administrations across states and Union Territories seemed to have laid down some avoidable restrictions. Pharma and diagnostic device manufacturers are being asked by some local administrations to close their operations. So is the case with the last mile delivery of these essentials. A lot of supplies of other ancillary goods such as chemicals for manufacturing reagents are also stuck in transit because of unavailability of logistics. The authorities need to urgently find a way out, to allow the undisrupted movement of these goods.
3. Allow more labs to test: More private laboratories need to be given approval to carry out preliminary screening, especially in the rural areas.
4. Allow the manufacture of local testing kits: India imports 80% of its raw material from other countries for its local manufacturing. It’s time now to wake up and remove the dependency on imports and encouraging manufacturing in India. And for that, the Government should now reduce the current 12% taxes on reagents to 5%. This will allow the medical fraternity to manufacture more kits locally and aid in more testing.
5. Availability of safety gears for the front-liners: While our front-liners continue this fight against corona, it is essential that their safety is taken care of. Authorities should ensure the availability of PPEs and sanitizers for all health workers."

Anil Jotwani, President – Sales & Marketing, Transasia Bio-Medicals Ltd.