Maharashtra govt to buy 10,000 vials of Remdesivir for treating COVID-19 patients

As Maharashtra continues to be the most affected state in India by coronavirus with over 82,000 confirmed cases, the state government has announced that it will purchase 10,000 vials of the drug Remdesivir for treating patients. 

The announcement was made by state's Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Saturday.

"GoM to procure 10k vials of Remdesivir. Based on evidence from Laboratory, animal and clinical studies, it has generated promising results in MERS-CoV and SARS which are also caused by Corona Virus," Tope tweeted.

In another tweet, the minister informed that the expensive medicine will be made available to the poor and needy patients across the state.

"WHO (World Health Organization) suggests it may have some positive effects in Covid-19 treatment. This expensive medicine is being made available for poor and needy patients," he added.

Remdesivir, which was originally tested in Ebola patients, has emerged as one of the top near-term hopes for COVID-19 patients.

To intensify its efforts in dealing with the pandemic, the Uddhav Thackeray-led government has also constituted a four-member committee to fix the charges for COVID-19 testing in private laboratories in the state. The committee will decide the fees of the COVID-19 test in private laboratories in a week.

It is notable that ICMR has approved COVID-19 testing in 44 government and 36 private laboratories with RT-PCR testing facilities. These tests are being done free of cost in government laboratories while a rate of Rs 4,500 has been fixed for private laboratories to conduct the tests.

The total number of cases in Maharashtra so far is 82,968. 2,969 people have died from the disease so far.