Nashik civic body hit by remdesivir crunch

NASHIK: The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) has been facing a shortage of remdesivir for the past two to three days.
NMC officials said they require around 400 to 450 remdesivir injections for patients in critical condition who are undergoing treatment at the Bytco hospital and Zakir Hussain hospital.
“Over the past two days, we have not had any stock of remdesivir and are waiting for the fresh stock,” said the officials.
NMC officials said they have already placed fresh orders for 5,000 remdesivir injections with the pharmacy company and are expecting to receive the orders in a day or two.
Last month, NMC had received 10,000 remdesivir injections from the Bangalore-based pharma company, for which, the civic body had already paid in advance.
Both the civic hospitals — Bytco hospital and Zakir Hussain hospital — are the Covid hospitals of the NMC with a total capacity of 910 beds, including 50% of the beds for patients in critical condition.
The civic body recently added 60 beds with oxygen in the Bytco hospital, taking the total number of beds to 760 in the hospital. Of which, 305 are beds with oxygen, including 21 ventilators.
Zakir Hussain houses have 150 beds for Covid patients, of which, 131 are beds with oxygen, including 15 ventilators. All the beds in both the civic hospitals have already been occupied.
When contacted, the Bytco hospital authorities said they have been running out of remdisivir stock for the past two days.