Health min seeks HCQ, Vit-C from Centre
Bhubaneswar: Health minister Naba Kishore Das on Friday asked Union health minister Harsh Vardhan to ensure enough supply of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and Vitamin C tablets to the state.
Raising the problem during a video-conferencing meeting of state health ministers with Harsh Vardhan, Das said, “Vitamin C ought to be administered to all to boost immunity. Suspected patients under quarantine should have a daily dose of Vitamin C. HCQ is being used as a medicine for treatment of Covid-19 patients”.
Das also demanded early supply of at least five lakh personal protective equipment. “PPEs are important for our frontline health professionals. I really hope the HLL will deliver it soon, ” he said.
He also demanded a Covid-19 hospital to be run by AIIMS Bhubaneswar at its satellite campus in Balasore.
Das said he also asked the Union minister to begin testing facilities in each district headquarters hospital and enhance testing capacity at the existing centres.
Currently, tests for Covid-19 are being done at Regional Medical Research Centre (350 sample capacity per day), AIIMS (75) and SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack (50).
RMRC has installed COBAS platform, an even more automated way of testing, which will increase its capacity to 1, 000 by April 16. The government is set to start testing at MKCG Medical College and Hospital Berhampur (25 samples per day) on April 13. Testing at VSS Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Sambalpur (25 per day) will start on April 15.
On Thursday evening, around 4, 000 testing kits were airlifted from Mumbai via a special cargo plane. The kits consist of tests, reagents and viral transport mediums (VTMS) needed for the process, according to a government statement.
The minister said demands were made for more number of ventilators and ICU facilities. “We also demanded for more N-95 masks, uninterrupted supply of other life-saving drugs not related to corona , ” he said.
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