TN won’t get 1k ventilators by Wednesday

13.04.2020

TN is unlikely to get the 500 ventilators each it had ordered from Argentina and Israel by April 15, and may have to wait till mid-May for the delivery, reports Pushpa Narayan. Sources said the delay is caused by a ban on the export on ventilators in the two countries. The state has now written to the MEA seeking its intervention so the ventilators are delivered at least by the end of April. While the companies that make the ventilators are based in the UK and US, their plants are in Israel and Argentina. Experts said there is no need to panic as the lockdown, likely to be extended till April 30, may delay the infection peak by another three weeks. “We have 3,000 ventilators. We have also placed orders for 1,000 more ventilators from local firms,” said a senior health department official.