UP health directorate approves locally-made Kheri kit to plug shortage of PPE

To ensure personal protective equipment (PPE) are available to COVID-19 frontline workers, the Uttar Pradesh health directorate has approved the locally-made Kheri kit', comprising shoe covers, body cover and head gear, to keep health professionals and police safe from the disease.

Officials said laminated poly poplin fabric had been used to make the items in the PPE kits.

Twenty-eight self-help groups have been roped in under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in Lakhimpur, Isanagar, Nighasan, Palia and Gola to manufacture the kits, Chief Development Officer (CDO), Kheri, Arvind Singh said.

"The Directorate of the Health Department, Uttar Pradesh, on Thursday not only approved quality and designs of the prototype PPE kit with some minor modifications in the design, but also placed an order for these Kheri-made PPE kits, he said.

The state Health Directorate lauded our initiative of manufacturing PPE kits at the local level," said Singh, who initiated the task of preparing the kits.

The cost of each PPE kit is estimated to be around Rs 550, he said. Kheri District Magistrate Shailendra Kumar Singh said that "in view of growing demand for PPE kits and their prevailing scarcity, an urgent need to prepare them at the local level was felt."
The DM said that "within a couple of days, we would be able to supply PPE kits not only for our own officials in Kheri but to those in other districts."