New Delhi: The Delhi government Wednesday permitted all manufacturers of drugs and cosmetics to produce ethanol-based hand sanitisers up to June 30 without a separate license to deal with the shortage of such cleansers in markets post coronavirus outbreak.
This was announced by Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, who shared a copy of a circular notifying the decision on Twitter. The decision was taken by the Drug Control Department of the Kejriwal government.
“It has been observed that hand sanitisers are either not available with most of the vendors in the market or are available at exorbitant prices,” the circular said.
The decision to “grant conditional permission/approval to manufacture ethanol-based sanitiser/hand cleanser/hand rub to manufacturers of drugs, homeopathic medicine manufacturers/cosmetic manufacturers in Delhi for a period up to June 30 only shall be deemed cancelled/withdrawn automatically, unless otherwise extended,” the circular said.
The circular also said the label of all such bottles should specify ‘for sale in Delhi only’ so that the manufacturers’ stock is not diverted outside the national capital.
“The pricing of the products so manufactured by them is within notified prices under ‘the Essential Commodities Act’,” it said. The WHO has declared coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) a pandemic, which has wreaked havoc globally, including in India.
The number of coronavirus cases in India rose to 562 on Wednesday while the death toll due to COVID-19 in the country was revised down to nine, according to the Union health ministry data.
The ministry in its updated figures Wednesday morning, stated that the second death reported in Delhi was COVID-19 negative, thus bringing down the death toll to nine in India. In Delhi, 30 cases of coronavirus have been reported including a death.
Many people have been rushing to markets to buy essential food items and hand sanitisers, especially since the lockdown announced by the Delhi government Saturday.
PTI