Efforts done by DRDO to deal with Covid-19 pandemic

New Delhi, 2 August (H.S): The Minister of State for Defence, Ajay Bhatt in a written reply to Dr Ashok Bajpai in Rajya Sabha today said that DRDO has dealt very effectively and efficiently with COVID-19 pandemic at National level.

He said DRDO has developed Sanitizers, Masks and PPE kits etc. when there was scarcity and no Knowhow of technology available in India. DRDO undertook fast-tracked the design and development of N95, N99 mask and many other technologies for disinfection and protection from COVID. These technologies were transferred to many industries at ?Nil? charges for all COVID related technologies.

The Minister said, DRDO carried out PPE testing at Gwalior for PPE imported from foreign countries. The same facility was later shifted to Delhi for cutting short the transit time. Later DRDO established a BS certified N95 mask testing facility at DRDE Gwalior. Besides, DRDO established makeshift COVID-19 hospitals at Delhi, Patna (Bihar), Muzaffarpur (Bihar), Rishikesh (UK), Jammu (UT of J&K), Srinagar (UT of J&K), Ahmedabad and Varanasi (UP). DRDO is providing complete administrative support by deploying Doctors/Scientists and also providing various consumables like PPE kits and other facilities at these Hospitals.

Bhatt said, modern RTPCR facilities were created or repurposed at Delhi (02 Labs),Gwalior (01 Lab), Leh (01 Lab), Tejpur (01 Lab), Bangalore (01 Lab) and DRDO also provided manpower and resources to Govt. Medical college Mysore and to Susheela Tiwari Govt. Hospital, Haldwani for augmenting national effort on COVID-I9 testing.

Elaborating further, the Minister said, an anti-COVID-19 therapeutic application of the drug 2-DG (2-deoxy-D-Glucose) has been developed by DRDO to benefit the people suffering from COVID-19. Guide books and apps like ‘MANOKAVACH’ have been developed by (DIPR) DRDO to aid our Armed Forces as well as civilian against this pandemic situation and to address the emotional and psychological state of the citizen of the country. Several Yoga and audio lectures were also designed for immunity boosting, he said.

He further informed the Parliament that sanitization and testing facilities have been extended at various Armed Forces locations, government offices all over the country including the Parliament. DRDO made state of the art Mobile BSL-III Containment Laboratory forCOVID-19 testing and deployed for COVID testing.

Ajay Bhatt said that under PMCARES, 866 nos. of Medical Oxygen Plants based on DRDO technologies are being set up by DRDO’s industry partners across the country to make medical oxygen production capability available in every district of the country.

DRDO has developed a unique system, “Oxycare” which sense the individual’s SPO2 level and accordingly supply oxygen from a cylinder. This help optimize the quantity of oxygen used by patient, 1.5 lakhs such systems are being procured through PMCARES.

DRDO developed indigenous ventilator through Indian Industries and help them indigenize many critical parts which were not available during very first spell of lockdown, 30,000 such ventilators were procured by Ministry of Health under PMCARES to be utilized across the nation.

Government of India has roped in tertiary care hospitals under other ministries to supplement the hospital facilities. Further, many large temporary treatment facilities were established by DRDO to manage surge in COVID-19 cases in the country. The isolation bed capacity and ICU bed capacity was also enhanced continuously.

To generate oxygen at the health facility level, PSA plants are being established in each district hospitals to reduce the burden on the medical oxygen supply grid across the country. More than 7,000 beds in multiple hospitals were established in various locations across the country, which helps in saving the life of COVID-19 patients. Besides, as many as 1,50,000 Oxycare Cylinders through PMCARES have been provided, which gave immense relief to common people.