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Chennai: The phone rang in Chennai’s oxygen ‘war room’, instantly putting everyone on alert. A hospital in Thoothukudi, a Tamil Nadu town, was running low on the life-saving gas. A truck carrying oxygen cylinders to the hospital had been delayed.
A quick meeting took place between in-charge Anusuiya S, drug inspector Sharmila and others present, and a course of action was decided upon. Sharmila made a call to a police control room near the hospital, which saw the police immediately swing into action and escort the oxygen-carrying truck to the hospital.
The oxygen control room set up in the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation building in Chennai was made operational on 6 May. The aim: Create a smooth access chain for oxygen for hospitals treating Covid patients in the state, so that a “Delhi-like situation can be averted”, state health officials said.
‘The counter can become a hotspot for spread of infection’
Since the daily sale of Remdesivir through a counter has been capped at 300 vials by Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation, those attending to COVID-19 patients find themselves in a compulsive situation of queuing up for lengthy durations spanning even two days for the anti-viral drug. TNMSC opened a counter at Government College of Physiotherapy opposite the District Collectorate here on Saturday. While the initiative was supposed to control the sale of the medicine in black market, the restricted sale has apparently led to panic buying.
The counter has provision for two queues, one for tokens and another for purchase of the drug. Both queues are getting lengthier every passing day. “We have been standing for two days. We are helpless and require the medicine for the treatment of my father,” an attendant said.
Coimbatore: Hundreds of people who had been waiting to buy remdesivir at the Coimbatore Medical College took out a protest on Monday when the sale counter was closed within half an hour of its opening.
According to the Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (TNMSC), the counter was closed as all the allotted 500 doses were sold in 30 minutes.
But the protesters, mainly relatives of patients, suspect that there were unfair practices in the sale of the drug and claimed that they had to take many pains to come here and wait during a lockdown to get the medicine.
People from at least five other districts began camping outside the medical college gates on Avinashi Road in Peelamedu from 6am on Monday.
Tamil Nadu Covid lockdown news live: State to float global tenders to procure Covid-19 vaccines
Tamil Nadu Covid lockdown news live: State to float global tenders to procure Covid-19 vaccines
Tamil Nadu received half the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses that three other states with similar populations did, data released by the Union health ministry show. At least eight districts – Chengalpet, Dharmapuri, Kallakurichi, Kancheepuram, Ranipet, Tiruvallur, Tiruvannamalai and Vellore – reported 100% occupancy of ICU beds, while Kancheepuram and Dharmapuri showed zero oxygen beds. On Monday, there were 1.5 lakh active cases with 54,443 patients in various hospitals in TN. Over the past14 days, Chennai has accumulated 82,140 new Covid-19 cases and more than 70% of them are in home isolation, waiting for visits from healthcare nurses and sanitary workers. Stay with TOI for more updates:Read Less
Relatives of Covid patients line up across the state for Remdesivir on Monday
CHENNAI: Protests, long queues, heated exchange of words between disappointed kin and Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation (TNMSC) officials and allegations of hoarding marked the sale of antiviral drug remdesivir across the state on Monday.
TNMSC data shows the counter at Kilpauk Medical College and Hospital in Chennai sold 1,500 vials of the drug, followed by 560 in Coimbatore, 500 in Madurai, 393 in Trichy and 300 each in Salem and Tirunelveli, all at MRP. However, many continued to purchase it in the black market, with one person at a private hospital in Chennai shelling out ₹30,000 per vial.