Building Breathers

As the number of Covid-19 cases in India surges, startups and industry heavyweights join hands in their race to make more ventilators

- VARSHA MEGHANI

From the central government to entrepreneurs, academics to automobile companies, a race is underway to build hundreds of thousands of ventilators. By pumping oxygen into the lungs of patients, the machines are critical for those in danger of lung failure, experienced by about a tenth of Covid-19 patients. “It’s the last resort before a patient dies,” says Dr Ashok Mahashur, consultant chest physician at PD Hinduja Hospital, Mumbai.

There’s no official count of how many ventilators hospitals across the country have at present, but one manufacturer estimates there are 40,000. “Of these around 20 to 25 percent would be dysfunctional,” he says. That leaves around 30,000 to 32,000 ventilators. In normal times hospitals need only a few dozen machines for critical cases. In these unprecedented times though, demand will outstrip supply.

“It’s purely speculative to say how many ventilators we’ll need,” says one doctor associated with Mumbai’s Wockhardt Hospital. “But it’s safe to say we’ll need many times more [than what we have.]”