A ban was imposed on the export of ventilators on March 24th,2020 to ensure the domestic availability to fight against this pandemic. On August 1st,2020 the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare made a proposal to allow the export of made in India ventilators.
The group of Ministers on COVID-19 agreed to the proposal and on Tuesday the 4th of August 2020, the ban on the export was lifted to push the outbound shipments of the product. This decision came on the heels of India as it is maintaining a progressive decline of the case fatality of COVID-19 patients.
The numbers of active cases on ventilators are very few in India. The manufacturing capacity of ventilators in India is seeing a substantial growth with more than 20 domestic manufacturers for the ventilators. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) said in the official notification all ventilators including any artificial respiratory apparatus or oxygen therapy apparatus, or any other breathing appliance/device are made free for export.
The Union Health Minister on Tuesday said, about 96% of the 60,000 ventilators being procured by the Government are made in India and most of them have been sponsored by the PM Cares Fund.
