Bengaluru, Apr 8 (IANS): Leading medical devices firm Healthium Medtech is maintaining production to meet demand for healthcare amid the COVID-19 lockdown, the company said.

"Production is maintained to ensure supply of essential devices like gloves, needles, haemostats, meshes and other surgical products needed for emergency surgeries, which continue despite the COVID pandemic," said the city-based firm in a statement on Tuesday.

The company has plants at Peenya in the city's northwest suburb and Kunigal in Tumakuru, 70km northwest of Bengaluru.

A"We have stepped up measures to protect our employees at the six production plants across the country in sterile environment with social distancing," said the statement.

The company also opened warehouses to transport stock to dealers and hospitals for ensuring the supply of medical essentials.

"We have contributed Rs 82 lakh to the Prime Minister's national relief fund and supplied surgical products valued at Rs 20 lakh to Chhattisgarh Institute of Medical Science at Bilaspur for the needy patients," said Healthium chief executive Anish Bafna in the statement.

The 36-years-old firm supplies its surgical products to about 70 countries the world over and a whopping 18,000 hospitals across the country, with 1,500 work force, of which 60 per cent are women.