Defence PSUs, OFB join India's fight against COVID-19

With the country in lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs), and Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), which come under the Ministry of Defence (MoD), have come forward to boost the nation's fight against the deadly infection.

OFB has planned for 280 isolation beds across 10 hospitals spread over six states, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, among others in the country. Apart from this, the OFB manufactured and dispatched 50 specialised tents for COVID-19 patients to Arunachal Pradesh government at a short notice.

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Bengaluru also has isolation ward facility with three beds in the Intensive Care Unit and 30 beds in wards. In addition, a building with 30 rooms was readied for any requirement. In all, 93 persons can be accommodated at HAL facility.

Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has also stepped in at the request of Ministry Health and Family Welfare to manufacture and supply 30,000 ventilators for ICUs within the next two months.

The OFB has also started production of hand sanitisers, made as per WHO standards. Out of the requirement of 13,000 litres from HLL Lifecare Limited (HLL), the nodal agency appointed by the government for centralised procurement, the OFB has sent the first lot of 1,500 litres on March 31 from Cordite Factory, Aryvankadu (Tamil Nadu).

Two more factories, one each in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are also ready for bulk production and can combinedly produce 3,000 litres of sanitiser per day if the need arises.

Moreover, the Ordnance Equipment Factories located at Kanpur, Shahjahanpur, Hazratpur (Firozabad) and Chennai are engaged in developing coverall and masks. They have also arranged special heat sealing machines for the manufacture of these garments at very short notice.

The successful testing of the first samples of coveralls was done at Defence Research & Development Establishment, Gwalior. The OFB can now produce up to 5-6 thousand coveralls per week.

The total number of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 3374 in India on Sunday, as per the data provided the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Out of these cases, 3030 are active cases, 267 have been cured/discharged/migrated people while 77 deaths have been reported so far in the country.