Andhra Pradesh starts manufacturing coronavirus test kits, ventilators

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy launched COVID-19 testing kits on Wednesday that were manufactured in the MedTech Zone of Visakhapatnam.

The Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone(AMTZ) is a unique medical equipment manufacturing zone and now has taken the lead during the coronavirus pandemic.

The AMTZ will manufacture the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) approved kits. For ventilators, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has exempted them from any kind of manufacturing approvals.

An AMTZ Trueprep Cartridge

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AMTZ has started manufacturing 2,000 testing kits every day that would be supplied to not only the state but the entire country.

There are plans to increase the manufacturing capacity to 25,000 kits per day to fulfil the growing demand in the country as the number of cases of coronavirus continues to rise in India.

AMTZ will also start producing 3,000 ventilators fro April 15 and scale up to 6,000 ventilators from May.

State-owned healthcare company Hindustan Lifecare (HLL) will be assisting in the assembly of ventilators.

Centre has already placed an order for 3,500 ventilators and the manufacturing process will start on April 15. Six companies have been set up in Phase-1 for this purpose.

The Industries and Commerce Department is donating 1,000 COVID-19 test kits to the government as a token of support. The Industries Department has further decided to donate 10,000 litres of hand sanitisers worth Rs 10 lakh to the government.

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