Covid-19 vax drive could be hit by shutdown of syringe factories

The closure of needles and syringes manufacturing factories in Haryana’s Faridabad, as a part of the anti-pollution drive in the NCR region, will hamper the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive across the country, said a top official of the manufacturing industry, ANI report stated. “The shutdown of needles and syringes manufacturing factories will create disruption in the supply chain which may impact healthcare delivery across the country in general and the Covid-19 vaccination programme, in particular, resulting in major shortage and other related issues,” said Hindustan Syringes and Medical Devices Ltd (HMD) managing director Rajiv Nath. The company, which is among the 228 other factories that have been asked to shut down its operations, claims to contribute over 66% of syringe supplies in the country for curative healthcare and immunization.

“At this location, HMD daily produces 1.5 crore needles and 80 lakh syringes. This has come to a halt now. As we can’t feed needles beyond two days buffer stock from Monday, other factories fed by the mother unit will be shut and daily 1.2 crore syringes will not be available nationally,” Nath said. In a letter to Arvind Kumar Nautiyal, member secretary of Commission for Air Quality Management, NCR, Nath requested Kumar to withdraw the order or make an exception looking at the critical nature of running their operation for the Covid-19 vaccination in India as well as globally to avoid any big national healthcare crisis stating that over 2/3rd of the country depends upon HMD.