It said the reports were "less than adequately informed and without any basis".
The Centre on Thursday dismissed as "without any basis and factually incorrect" media reports which claimed that the government kept 13,000 unused ventilators during the COVID-19 second wave crisis and that these were not delivered to the states/UTs.
"There are no ventilators which have been kept in the inventory by the central government and not given to states that needed them. Every lot of ventilators which is ready for dispatch is getting dispatched to the states and UTs promptly. Therefore, the observations and interpretations drawn in the article are not based on facts," the health ministry said in a statement.
It said the reports were "less than adequately informed and without any basis".
The Ministry of Health had placed the order for procurement of ventilators at the beginning of the pandemic itself, the statement stated.
The orders were placed between March 27 and April 17, 2020 for procurement of 58,850 ventilators, it said.
These were all Make-In-India ventilators considering the fact that there was a minimum possibility of sourcing imported ventilators from abroad in view of the fact that the global demand of ventilators had increased and the ventilator manufacturing countries had also imposed export restrictions.
The domestic capacity of manufacturing ventilators was very limited and these manufacturers were encouraged to ramp up production, which they carried out by sourcing technology as well as undertaking tie ups with companies who could assist them in augmenting the production, the statement said.
The health ministry said based on recommendations of the Empowered Group-III (meant for ensuring adequate supply of essential medical devices), these procurement orders were placed by the central dispensation.
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