Faridkot, May 3

The state Health Department has recommended the doctors in all level 2 and 3 hospitals of the state to use dexamethasone or itolizumab injections in place of tocilizumab injection (400 mg), which is not manufactured in India and its availability in the country is low.

The number of Covid patients admitted in level 2 and 3 health facilities in government and private hospitals had increased sharply over the past few days, said Hussan Lal, Principal Secretary, Department of Health, in a letter today.

“It has been observed that doctors are prescribing injection tocilizumab to patients. It is a matter of common knowledge that this injection is not manufactured in India,” he wrote.

The expert group, headed by Dr KK Talwar, has recommended that since the drug was not available, the doctors treating critically-ill patients were advised to prescribe the drugs which were available in the market and equally effective. These drugs were dexamethasone and itolizumab injections.

All these three injections are used in a wide range of conditions for their anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant effects.

Meanwhile, after the state government asked all level 2 and 3 government medical colleges and hospitals in the state to increase their bed capacity by 20 per cent for Covid patients, the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College Hospital in Faridkot has decided to increase its bed capacity from 400 to 500. — TNS