Chennai, May 15 : Hundreds of relatives of Covid-19 infected persons converged at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium here on Saturday to buy the Remdesivir injection.
Their one immediate objective was to get the vial so that their loved ones are saved.
The Tamil Nadu government had shifted the Remdesivir sale venue from Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital to Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium to reduce crowds at the hospital.
"It is total confusion here.
No [signage] boards were put up to guide people," a person told reporters.
What was there was just a barricade to make people stand in the queue.
According to the people waiting to get the injection, the police were not properly informed.
With confusion leading to frustration, people started protesting demanding proper arrangements.
One person lamented to the media that the government should have supplied the injection to hospitals directly so that they need not spend hours standing in the queue.
With Covid-19 infection numbers going up in the state and with doctors prescribing Remdesivir injection for the patients, the demand for the injection has gone up.
Though medical experts have said that Remdesivir is not the only injection to cure Covid-19 patients, the demand for the drug has shot up as the doctors are prescribing the same.
The relatives of the patients can buy the injection by showing the doctor's prescription, medical reports, and the Aadhaar card of the patient.
Relatives of Covid-19 patients from outside Chennai came to Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital to get the injection.
Those standing in the queue alleged that they were not able to get the injection despite standing for a long time and the supplies were restricted per day.
At some point, people even started hiring persons to stand in the queuu.
"One had to wait for a couple of days to get the drug from Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital.
In the black market the drug was being sold as high as Rs.17,000 per vial," a Covid-19 patient told IANS not wanting to be named.
"I got three bottles for Rs.30,000 from a person who had bought the drug for his son.
However, his son had died," the person added.
Later the state government had announced that the injection can be bought from districts and then came the decision to change the sales venue from Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K.
Stalin recently urged the central government to allocate at least 20,000 vials of Remdesivir injection daily up from the current 7,000 vials.
The number of active Covid-19 cases in the state as on Friday was about 1.83 lakh.
On Saturday Stalin said hoarders and black marketers of the injection will be booked under the Goondas Act.--IANS
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Source: IANS
