Telangana gets tiny share of Covid drug, lowest among southern States

HYDERABAD: Telangana  has yet again been given a very small share of critical Covid-19 drugs. On Tuesday, the Centre released the new revised allocation as per which the State has been given just 675 doses of the Tocilizumab drug used in severe ICU Covid-19 cases. All other southern States have received a larger allocation.

For instance, neighbouring Andhra Pradesh has received 2,040 vials of the medicine. Karnataka has received 6,150 vials, whereas Tamil Nadu and Kerala have received 1,640 and 4,500 vials respectively.
The poor allocation is likely because the State’s health bulletin shows far fewer cases than the number of patients coming to hospitals.

The Central government’s note from the Department of Pharmaceuticals reads, “The distribution is being done taking into account only the recent active case loads in the states.” Earlier as well, it has been observed that the State’s share — be it for Remdesivir, oxygen or vaccines — has been poor.

These allocated drugs can only be procured from the State Health Department. Any patient needing it will have to go via a hospital to the government committee which will prescribe the drug based on merits of the case.

Meanwhile, in Nizamabad, several officials, private, government doctors say the State was not getting a larger quota of medicines as it has been underreporting Covid-positive cases, unlike neighbouring states and several northern States.