Door delivery for prescription medicines
NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday cleared doorstep delivery of medicines and drugs to people, as the 21-day nation-wide lockdown over COVID-19 entered the second day.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said the medicines that will be provided at doorstep should fall under the Schedule H category.
These are medicines that needs the prescription of a qualified doctor.
“The Central Government is satisfied that retail sale of drugs to the doorstep of consumers is essential to meet the requirements of emergency arising due to pandemic COVID-19 and in the public interest, it is necessary and expedient to regulate the sale and distribution of drugs for their delivery to the consumers,” the ministry said.
“The licensee shall submit an e-mail ID for registration with the licensing authority if prescriptions are to be received through email.
The prescription shall be dispensed only if it is presented to the licensee within 30 days of its issue and in acute cases, the prescription shall be dispensed only if it is presented to the licensee within 7 days of its issue,” the ministry notification says.
The bill or cash memo shall be sent by the return email and records of all such transactions shall be maintained by the licensee, the notification said.
The government, while imposing the 21-day nation-wide lockdown, has said that all the essential services will be avaible and urged people not to panic and avoid all “non-essential” travel.
The Centre, meanwhile, has sealed the maximum retail price ( MRP) of 3-ply meltblown face masks at Rs16 per piece till June 30. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked government ministries to find innovative ways of using their resources to set up manufacturing of medical equipment like ventilators and scaling up their production, sources at the health ministry said.
A cabinet meeting chaired by Modi on Wednesday discussed ways of using state-owned facilities and production units for boosting manufacture and supply of medical equipment and setting up quarantine facilities.
Officials also said the five central paramilitary forces such as the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-tibet Border Police (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) have a combined strength of 7,500 hospital beds, where COVID-19 patients can be treated as a contingency measure if the country faces a surge of positive cases.