New Delhi, April 9 (TIWN) The government has roped in 20 domestic manufacturers to meet the growing demand of personal protective equipment (PPE). "Orders for 1.7 crore PPEs and 49,000 ventilators have been placed and their supply has begun," said Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary at the Health Ministry, here on Thursday.

The Union Health Ministry on April 9 said there is no need to panic over the availability of COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE), but stressed these should be used rationally.  Also read | Ensure those in the frontline get PPE, Congress tells Centre  Joint Secretary at the Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said at the daily briefing that 20 companies are manufacturing PPE in India and orders for 1.7 crore PPE have already been placed with them.

Joint Secretary at the health ministry Lav Agarwal said at the daily briefing that 20 companies are manufacturing PPE in India and orders for 1.7 crore PPE have already been placed with them.  Since Wednesday, 540 cases of the coronavirus infection and 17 deaths due to it have been reported, he said.  The total number of COVID-19 cases in India is 5,734 and 166 people have died due to the disease, he said.  According to an ICMR official, 1,30,000 samples have been tested for COVID-19 so far in country.