To meet rising demand, state to get 21K doses of Remdesivir

THE STATE HEALTH DEPT WILL GET 13,400 DOSES FROM THE CENTRAL GOVT AND 8,000 FROM PVT FIRMS

AMRITSAR: The state health department will soon receive 21,400 doses of Remdesivir to meet the rising demand amid the second wave of the pandemic in Punjab, health experts said on Thursday.

Remdesivir, an injectable anti-viral, aims to prevent replication of the virus in the infected people. It was manufactured in 2014 to treat Ebola, and has since been used to treat SARS and MERS. In 2020, the drug was repurposed for Covid treatment and clinical experience has shown that it works best in mildly ill to severe Covid-19 patients.

In the Covid-19 hotbeds districts of the state, including Amritsar, Patiala, Jalandhar and Ludhiana, the patients are struggling to get Remdesivir injections from government and private hospitals as India is grappling to meet the rising demand of the anti-viral drug.

Addressing shortages of Remdesivir in certain and most infected regions of the country, the Central government made interim allocation of the key anti-viral drug for 19 states and Union Territories, including Punjab, for the period up to 30 April. Under the allocation, the Government of India had decided to send 13,400 doses to Punjab.

The health department has placed an order of additional 8,000 doses from private firms, which they are expecting to receive in coming 2-3 days, to ensure easy availability of the anti-viral drug in government and private hospitals.

“Remdesivir is not available in Patiala hospitals, both government and private, while its demand is increasing with every positive patient. We have made requests to the state health department to ensure its availability in the market so as to avoid black marketing and hoarding,” said Patiala civil surgeon Dr Satinder Singh.

State nodal officer for Covid-19 Dr Rajesh Bhaskar said: “At present, we have 750 doses of Remdesivir in state’s government and private hospitals and the daily usage of the anti-viral drug is 40 to 50 doses. However, as people are searching for the injection in the market, we will ensure its easy availability.