Nagpur: A day after the Nagpur bench of Bombay high court ordered the state government to send 10,000 Remdesivir vials to Nagpur district to tackle the Covid crisis, the district administration received only 1,100 from different sources on Tuesday compelling it to postpone its distribution to hospitals treating coronavirus patients.
With around 165 Covid hospitals and some facilities, having more than 7,000 beds, waiting for the crucial anti-viral injection, the stock received by the district administration was only 15% of the total demand.
On Sunday too the district administration could not distribute the injection due to short supply. On April 17, only 395 vials were received.
As no Covid patients could be administered Remdesivir, the death rate on Monday was a pandemic-high of 113. With yet another ‘zero’ supply on Tuesday, the city hospital administration is expecting the worst on Wednesday. Not just Remdesivir, even other Covid-saving drugs like Tocilizumab and Alzumab are in short supply.
“From now, whatever little Remdesivir stock is received will be distributed. There is a possibility of 5,000 reaching the district on Wednesday,” said district collector Ravindra Thakare who discussed the crisis with top officials of revenue department and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday evening.
“On Monday, we could meet only 60% of the demand and the stock received was far too less for distribution on Tuesday,” added Thakre.
According to a highly-placed source, even the details of the 1,100 Remdesivir vials did not reach the collector’s office till late making the job difficult of allotting it to the hospitals.
Around 20 vials of Tocilizumab are expected to arrive by April 23. Even oxygen shortage has severely hit the district and region.
According to Dr Anup Marar, convenor of the Vidarbha Hospitals Association, the district faced a panic situation and making relatives and patients anxious. “There is surplus stock in western Maharashtra hospitals but Vidarbha patients continue to get step-motherly treatment in terms of allotment,” he said.