Chandigarh: Around 130 ventilators out of the total 809 lifesaving machines sent by the Centre to Punjab for COVID-19 management are faulty, said a senior official of the state health department on Wednesday.
"Around 130 ventilators are non-functional even after their installation," the official said.
He further said that the state government had been raising the issue of faulty ventilators with the Centre The department had also raised the issue of slow installation of ventilators with the Centre, the official said.
Around 130 ventilators are still uninstalled in the state, the official said. The ventilators are installed by teams from the Centre.
Meanwhile, Punjab Medical Education and Research Minister O P Soni said he talked to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday and demanded that good quality ventilators be sent to Punjab after several of the lifesaving machines received by the state turned out to be faulty.
Soni claimed that most of the ventilators received by the government colleges in the state were not of good quality and were not functioning.
Citing an example, he said the Faridkot Medical College is facing problems because of issues in ventilators received from the Centre, adding that engineers had to be called in for repair.
(With inputs from agency)
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