Palanpur: Even as people make a mad scramble to get remdesivir, chief minister Vijay Rupani claimed on Sunday that Gujarat is the only state to have arranged for adequate supply of the drug used in Covid-19 treatment by supplying 2.80 lakh injections in the 10 days from April 1.
"The government has distributed 1.05 lakh remdesivir injections through public hospitals within 10 days and 1.80 lakh to other hospitals through stockists. Gujarat is the first state make available the adequate stock of remdesivir within few days,|" he said addressing reporters in Patan.
The CM conceded that there are complaints of shortage in private hospitals and necessary steps are being taken to address the issues and ensure there is no black marketing of the drug.
"The system of Covid hospitals directly getting remdesivir supply has been put in place. Hospitals will use their discretion of administering it to the patients," he added.
"Given the present scale of the pandemic, the government is taking all steps to address the issues related to scarcity of medicines, beds, oxygen supply etc," he said.
Rupani appealed to people to purchase remdesivir only as per doctor's advice so that scarcity does not emerge. "It's not necessary that if you have corona, you need to take remdesivir," he said.
He said the government has facilitated the supply of 50,000 remdesivir injections to Ahmedabad and 25,0000 each to Rajkot, Surat and Vadodara
Decision on lockdown as per GOI guidelines
Palanpur: Asked if the state government is mulling a mini-lockdown for 4-5 days, chief minister Vijay Rupani said that they are constantly in touch with the government of India and any decision will be taken as per the guidance of the Centre.
"The government will take necessary steps as and when need arises and under the guidance of GOI. At present, th 10 hours of lockdown in 20 cities is almost like a half-lockdown," he said.