Black marketeers of Remdesivir injections in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore district, which is the worst hit by the pandemic in the state, will be booked under the stringent National Security Act (NSA), a senior official said on Monday.
Besides, the administration has launched a process under the NSA to prosecute a doctor and a medical representative caught black-marketing the scarce antiviral drug the previous day.
“Complaints are coming in that staffers of small hospitals are involved in black-marketing of Remdesivir. We are going to send such people to jail under the NSA,” district collector Manish Singh told reporters here.
He said the distribution of Remdesivir injections was being closely monitored.
“We are going to prosecute directors of the hospitals involved in black marketing (of Remdesivir),” he added.
The collector said a spike in the demand for the injection coupled with a dip in its supply was the main reason behind the shortage of the drug.
Singh said the supply of the injection will pick up in the coming days.
So far, 91,015 people have been tested positive for coronavirus in Indore district since March 24, 2020. The count of COVID-19 fatalities in the district is 1,054, as per officials.