On Saturday (April 25), the Uttar Pradesh police arrested two nurses for stealing and auctioning the life-saving Remdesivir injection of a dying man in Meerut, reported The Times of India.
The two male nurses worked at a reputed private hospital in Meerut. They had stolen the Remdesivir injection which was allotted to a Coronavirus patient by the name of Shobhit Jain. While three doses had been administered prior to his death, the fourth dose was stolen by the two nurses. According to the police, the accused have been identified as Abid Khan and Ankit Sharma.
Although one dose of Remdesivir costs around ₹900-2000, the duo put it up for auction. The winning bid was around ₹25,000. The bid was placed by the police officials, who were pretending to be the relatives of Shobhit Jain. Based on a tipoff, the cops arrested the accused nurses who had quoted ₹32,000 for the Remdesivir injection.
Reportedly, around 6 security personnel deployed at the hospital tried to protect the accused but were later overpowered and arrested by the police as well. While speaking about the matter, SSP (Meerut) Ajay Sahani said, “Our surveillance team and policemen were working on the case after a tip-off. They (the nurses) had quoted Rs 32,000. We have arrested the nurses, Abid Khan and Ankit Sharma.”
Yogi Adityanath orders strict action against black marketing
On Saturday (April 24), Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced several measures to manage the rising Covid-19 cases in the state. Reviewing the pandemic situation through video conferencing, the CM issued several directives regarding the availability of hospital beds, oxygen, and Covid-19 medicines in the hospitals in the state.
The CM directed that all hospitals in the state where Covid-19 patients are being treated should make public the details of vacant beds in the hospital twice a day. These details should also be uploaded on the portal of Integrated COVID Control & Command Centres (ICCCC) of the districts. The CM said that beds should be allotted with full transparency.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that in collaboration with DRDO, the process of setting up Covid hospitals in Lucknow and Varanasi is about to be completed. Saying that the operationality of these two hospitals with all necessary medical facilities will further strengthen the medical resources of the state, he asked the health ministry to make arrangements for trained human resources etc.
The CM said that Remdesivir and other lifesaving drugs should be distributed transparently. He added that 18,000 vials of Remdesivir have been received from Cadila, and its supply is increasing every day. More demand should be sent to the concerned companies as per the demand. There is a need to further improve the supply as well as its distribution system. These facilities should be made equally available to all the needy, the CM emphasised.
