Centre not doing fair allocation of ventilators, Northeast needs more supplies: Gaurav Gogoi

NEW DELHI: Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi has raised his concern over inequality in allocation of ventilators to states in the Northeastern region.

In a letter to Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Gogoi said ,"There is discernible inequity in allocation of ventilators to states in the northeast which needs to be remedied urgently."

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He stressed that adequate support should be provided to the states, especially in the Northeast that are witnessing higher number of active cases.

Gogoi based his points on the state wise data on allocation, delivery, and installation of ventilators as on June 22, 2021, he received in response to his RTI. On comparing the data with state-wise active cases as on June 23, he observed the slanted treatment.

Gogoi observed that Assam recorded over 32,000 cases amounting approximately 5% of total active cases as on June 23. The state was allocated a total of 1000 ventilators. While Uttar Pradesh recorded nearly 4000 cases which is about 0.61% of the total active cases and yet saw allocation of 6,316 ventilators, the highest allocation in the country. The second highest was made to Gujarat 6,200 ventilators despite state's significantly lower number of 5,159 active cases which is 0.80% of the total active cases.

He further stated that Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram recorded a higher number of active cases as compared to Bihar and Jharkhand. However the allocation of ventilators is inversely proportional to the number of active cases in these states.

The Congress MP also highlighted the gap between delivery and installation of ventilators in several states. He informed that Uttar Pradesh is yet to install 1067 of the delivered ventilators.

"Such gaps lead to underutilization of resources and potential shortage during health crisis", he added in the letter.

He further requested the Union Health Minister to raise the allocation of ventilators to 5000 for Assam and 500 each for the states of Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

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