High Court Criticizes Centre for COVID-19 Protocol on Remdesivir

New Delhi- On 27th April Wednesday, the Delhi High court had objected to a change in the protocol of how the drug for resistance against COVID-19 ( Remdesivir ) would be administered to the patients.

The change was considered as "mismanagement" and "maladministration" by the court. 

The protocol had stated that the vaccine of Remdesivir will only be administered to the people with oxygen support and had neglected the people without this facility. This decision was taken keeping in mind to combat the low supply of the vaccine in the state of Delhi. Read more

This proposition met a quick halt as Justice Prathiba M Singh rebuked this new protocol. "This is a complete non-application of mind. Now people who do not have oxygen support will not receive Remdesivir either,'' Prathiba M Singh stated. She also added by boldly stating "it appears you want people to die," after the central government submitted the protocol. Read more

The court had also stated that it will consider whether a medical committee shall intervene to review the protocol or suggest an idea whether there is a need for change Remdesivir is being administered.

The court further added, "Do not change the protocol just to reduce the shortage."

The Centre later told the court about the allocation of the Remdesivir vaccine is 52000 rather than 72000 which was allocated for Delhi.

The court objected as they told that the allocation for the vials cannot be that low for Delhi.

It turned out that an MP was able to procure 10000 vaccines allocated to Delhi and transported them to Ahmednagar in Maharashtra via a charter flight and had later commissioned the vaccine there. 

The court was "shocked'' at this and later added that these vials could have been given to treat 10000 people suffering from covid-19.

The centre said that in the coming days the number of vaccines produced will increase which could be used for the people in Delhi. 

Meanwhile, India yet again smashes its own previous record of the single-day highest spike in the cases of the novel coronavirus on Wednesday as it reported 3.79 lakh fresh cases, the highest ever single-day spike recorded globally. In the last 24 hours, 3,645 fresh cases of COVID-induced fatalities were reported taking the total death toll of the country to 2.04 lakhs. Yesterday's surge in the cases of the novel coronavirus takes the total tally of the country's caseload to 1.83 crores while the active cases amount to 30.77 lakhs. Over 3 lakh COVID-19 cases have been reported in India for more than a week, making it the second-worst coronavirus-affected country in the world.

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