PATNA: Witnessing spurt in the number of COVID-19 positive cases almost daily, the health department of Bihar government for the first time issued licences for producing hand sanitizers to 10 manufacturers on Friday.
There was no sanitizer manufacturing units in Bihar prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Confirming this, the principal secretary of health, Sanjay Kumar said that the 10 licences issued to different manufacturers would help in strengthening the availability of sanitizers at lower and affordable prices for the common people.
According to him, licences have been issued to two manufacturers of Vaishali district and rest to the manufacturers in Patna, West Champaran, Fatuha, Samastipur, Gopalganj, Banka and two other manufacturers of Bhojpur districts.
Recently, shortage of hand sanitizers hit the markets in the state and many of the sellers had started selling it at an exorbitant price.
According to sources in the pharmaceutical sector, demand for hand sanitizers, as well as the sanitizing chemicals, have increased five times.
A huge chunk of Bihar's 11 crore of the population has started using the sanitizers in their houses and hands in the last a couple of months.
A health department official said that now hand sanitizers and masks are sold like common household items even at the small shops in rural areas.