Queues for Remdesivir injections continuing in Gujarat despite of various efforts to ease its availability

April 10, 2021
Ahmedabad Gujarat

Ahmedabad: City based Zydus Hospitals last evening made announcement that Remdac Remdesivir injections will not be available from April 10.

“We regret to inform that REMDAC Remdesivir from Zydus Cadila will not be available from 10th April, 2021. We, as always, will stand by you in these trying times and we shall update as soon as the stocks are available: Zydus Hospitals,” the hospital tweeted from its twitter handle.

For last few days, Zydus hospitals had emerged as a dependable destination for Remdesivir injections, that are used for Covid19 patients. While Remdesivir injections from other companies are available in price range of Rs. 4,000 to over Rs. 5,000, Zydus brand Remdesivir injections REMDAC is available for just Rs. 899.

In spite of announcement on non- availability of REMDAC, large number of people continued to queue outside Zydus hospital located in Thaltej area of city for injections from various parts of Gujarat.

In another development, the Gujarat government today communicated that 10,000 Remdesivir injections are reaching Surat based Kiran hospital by evening today through air lift from Gauhati in Assam. The Government also informed that Surat Collector has been handed over 2,500 Remdesivir injections. The Chief Minister while speaking to media persons in Ahmedabad on the sideline of flag off function of Dhanvantari Rath clarified that government role was only supportive in case of injections supply to Kiran hospital in attempt to ease the situation of demand in the city. This is because the government can purchase only those injections available to it at lowest cost, while Kiran Hospital has managed to purchase injections of other companies that charge higher. Rupani said the situation of availability of injections is better of in Gujarat compared to other states as Gujarat is supplier state where injections are manufactured.

Meanwhile, ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief CR Patil had during his visit to Civil hospital in Surat last evening made announcement that BJP would distribute 5,000 Remdesivir injections to needy people for free. Today, long queues were witnessed outside the BJP office in Surat for injections. When asked about this, Chief Minister during his media interaction clarified that such injection distribution was unrelated to government. In reply to media query, Rupani asked scribes to get their reply from CR Patil only about procurement and distribution of injections from BJP office.

It is learnt that 1,000 injections have been purchased from Zydus company’s agency for distribution today. While 900 injections are being distributed in Surat, 100 are for Navsari. Navsari based Bharat Sukhadiya has sponsored free distribution of 1,000 injections by Navsari BJP. Daily 100 injections are to be distributed for free to needy people from BJP office in Navsari.

Last evening, Food and Drug Administration of Gujarat government had in a note communicated that in one day 24,687 Remdesivir injections were supplied. Gujarat witnessed requirement of 1,63,716 Remdesivir injections in the month of March this year against which 1,70,738 injections were made available in just nine days of April. The government has given order for procurement of 3 lakh injections.

According to Dr. Hemant Koshia, Commissioner of Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA), there are six manufacturers of Remdesivir injections in Gujarat. They altogether produce three to four lakh injections each day and try to satisfy the needs of entire country.

Leading doctors have recently, time and again clarified that Remdesivir is not suitable to all Covid patients. Its doses just curtail the hospitalization period by five days. It is not clinical cure for Covid19. It should be administered only on serious kind of patients. However demand for Remdesivir is only increasing across the State with number of fresh Covid cases touching new high everyday. There are complains of black marketing of Remdesivir injections. People also complain, they just can’t figure out how to get these injections as they are not available with stockiest or hospitals.

AMC has made special arrangements for availability of Remdesivir injections directly to private hospitals that have inked MoU. Under this arrangement, injections are given only to hospitals for needy patients. DeshGujarat

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