Amid the rising cases of coronavirus COVID-19 and concern over the availability of hydroxychloroquine, the Union Health Ministry on Wednesday assured that there will be no shortage of hydroxychloroquine in India. Hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, has been identified by the US Food and Drug Administration as a possible treatment for the COVID-19.
Addressing a media query on hydroxychloroquine, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Luv Aggarwal said, there will not be any shortage of hydroxychloroquine in the country either today or in future. “This is being monitored at the highest level”, he said.
At the same time, he highlighted that hydroxychloroquine is only for specific sets of people, to be used only based on the prescription of registered medical doctors.
The drug is being tested on more than 1,500 coronavirus patients in New York and a sizeable chunk of the 29 million doses of hydroxychloroquine bought by the US was from India to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump and Prime Minister Modi spoke over the phone last week. During the call, Trump requested PM Modi to lift the hold on the American order of hydroxychloroquine, of which India is the major producer.
The total number of COVID-19 cases in the country stands at 5,194 till 9.15 pm (IST) on April 8. A total of 149 people in the country have died because of the COVID-2019 infection. In the last 24 hours, 773 new cases and 32 deaths have been reported. A total of 402 people have recovered and has been discharged according to Aggarwal, at the daily media briefing on the actions taken, preparedness and updates on COVID-19.
Stating that around 80 per cent of COVID-19 cases are mild or very mild, the Joint Secretary informed that as part of upgrading health infrastructure, COVID Care Centres, as proposed in the guidance document released by the Ministry yesterday, are being set up in adequate number and speed to treat these cases.
Hotels, lodges, schools, stadia, etc. will be used for this purpose. Additionally, the required action is being taken in coordination with states to set up an adequate number of dedicated COVID Health Centres and dedicated COVID Hospitals, to treat critical and severe cases, he further informed.
Aggarwal stated that the Centre and states have taken a series of measures to break the chain of transmission. As cases increase, commensurate response and preparedness are also being adopted. As per guidelines and containment plan, the action is being taken to manage COVID-19.
