NEW DELHI: The Central government has said that protective wear, N95 masks and ventilators should be procured centrally by the health ministry and distributed to the states rather than states buying it themselves. In a letter to the) states dated April 2, the ministry said the decision to centralise procurement was taken by the Empowered Group for ensuring availability of essential medical equipment such as personal protective equipment, masks, gloves and ventilators in its April 1 meeting .However, several states have already places orders for protective gear for health workers and for test kits too. It is not clear what will happen to the orders already placed.The group that took the decision was one of 11 empowered groups constituted by the Centre in the last week of March to suggest ways to ramp up healthcare and get the economy on track among other things.The Apr 2 letter asked states “to revisit the actual requirement of crucial medical devices” such as masks, gloves etc and so that the requirements could be aggregated to arrive at an overall figure. This was to include an estimate of the fortnightly requirement of a state for Covid-19 management.The letter further states that certain states were found holding sufficient stock of material with them, while field functionaries were reported to be functioning without equipment. It urged state governments to ensure timely distribution of the key equipment to field functionaries.The health ministry also urged states to identify ventilators that were not working for want of repairs, and to ensure that such crucial medical equipment be put in working condition at the earliest. The states have been advised to assess the need for trained manpower to operate the equipment and to quantify oxygen cylinder availability to ensure it is sufficient for the management of Covid-19 patients.The Kerala health department has already placed an order for 1,400 ventilators through Kerala Medical Services Corporation. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that though the state was initially sourcing from the centre, it later started procuring on its own. He added that “whoever is supplying, there should not be any delay or shortage”. State health secretary Dr Rajan N Khobragade said that though there was no shortage of PPEs or ventilators at present, if the situation worsened, those might be needed in huge quantities.