Create mechanism for Remdesivir, oxygen distribution, HC tells state

BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday said the State Government should take immediate steps and consider whether it can purchase Remdesivir directly from the manufacturers and distribute it to hospitals in fair manner. It will have to create some sort of mechanism for distribution of oxygen in coordination with suppliers, the court added, while seeking the state’s response on the preparedness, with Covid-91 cases expected to peak in the first or second week of May.

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar passed the order while mentioning the common complaints over sale of Remdesivir in the black market and shortage of oxygen in hospitals. The court also referred to a letter from S Shivakumar, president of the Karnataka State Association of Managements of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences Institutions, to the Chief Justice drawing attention to sale of Remdesivir in the black market, shortage of beds and non-availability of medicine he had himself experienced before he was admitted to an hospital for Covid-19 treatment.

Handing over a copy of the letter to the government counsel, which also has several suggestions to the government, the court said that failure to take action against those selling Remdesivir in the black market and making patients to run from pillar to post for a hospital bed amounts to violation of rights of patients.

The court said the state government should publish the Remdesivir stocks available with drugs stores with their details and phone number, which should be updated daily. Wide publicity should be given to the website, the court said while directing the government to nominate officials and NGOs to supervise whether medicines are being sold in the in black market and beds are being denied to patients.

Referring to ambulances queuing up in front of crematoriums, the court directed the government to step in immediately and create additional facilities for cremation and burial in places where large number of deaths are reported. Prior to this, the government informed the court that the queue was due to breakdown of furnaces in some crematorium due to overburden. The counsel for the petitioners informed the court that the Christian community was facing serious crisis, as there was no place for burial of bodies in Bengaluru and Mysuru.