State admits getting higher allocation of Remdesivir vials from Centre

Maharashtra Government has admitted that the Centre has increased the allocation of Remdesivir to the state but it has been silent on whether its demand for the daily 70,000 vials has been met or not. The state government further said that according to a letter dated May 1, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Central Government had sanctioned a total stock of 8,09,500 Remadesivir for Maharashtra from April 21 to May 23, 2021.

Thereafter, the Union Health Minister as per the letter dated May 7, 2021, communicated to the state that it has increased the supply of Remdesivir by 347500 and a total of 1157000 vials have been sanctioned for the period of April 21 to May 16, 2021. For the period April 21 to May 17, a total of 11,37,073 vials of Remdesivir have been distributed to private and government hospitals in the state. On May 17, a total of 34,371 Remdesivir vials were distributed and on May 18, the government has distributed 31,420 vials in the state.

As far as the status of medical oxygen is concerned, 1696.33 Metric Tonnes were supplied to different districts on May 17. These supplies were made as per the statement of supply done by the Food and Drug Administration and given to the liquid medical oxygen producers. The statement includes the amount of oxygen these producers need to supply in each district on a daily basis.

On May 19, 2021, the state government asked the producers to supply 1718.5 MT of medical oxygen. "On May 17, 2021, 1696.33 MT of oxygen was supplied to different districts of the state including 194.38 MT received from other states comprising 117.36 MT from Gujarat and 77 MT from Chhattisgarh.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Tuesday had said that Maharashtra cannot afford to rely on others for medical oxygen in the present COVID-19 situation and priority must be given to produce 3,000 MT of the vital gas per day in the state itself.