COVID-19: Maharashtra Govt Orders 150 Ventilators, Gets Only 45

Mumbai: With Covid-19 cases soaring on a daily basis in Maharashtra, the state’s efforts to equip the hospitals with ventilators received a jolt after the supplier failed to deliver those.

Maharashtra had placed an order for 150 Bellavista ventilators in March, but only 45 of those have been delivered as of now. These ventilators were to be used for the treating critical patients in the district of the state.

The order was placed to the state-run Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation on March 21 for the ventilators. The state government has show caused Ms Biotronic Equipment Pvt Ltd. The firm which was supposed to supply ventilators to 37 state-run medical colleges and hospitals in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Akola, Miraj, Yavatmal, Gondia, Nanded, Latur and Dhule.

“We have issued a notice to the company and are following up with it for supplies,” said managing director of Haffkine BioPharma, Dr Rajesh Deshmukh.

As per reports, the ventilators’ order was to be delivered in 15 days, but four months have passed and the firm failed to supply those. With one ventilator costing Rs 11.5 lakh, the total order was for Rs 17.2 crore.