COVID-19: Maha demands COVID-19 drugs, ventilators from Centre

Mumbai, Jun 17 () The Maharashtra government on Wednesday demanded from the Centre COVID-19 treatment drugs remdesivir and tocilizumab "in large quantity and at reasonable rate".

Talking to reporters, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that the state also wants the Centre to provide additional 500 ventilators for the treatment of coronavirus positive patients.

"We have been issuing remdesivir and tocilizumab drugs to treat COVID-19 patients on case-to-case basis with the help of ICMR. But now we need these medicines in large numbers and at reasonable price from the Centre for treatment of patients," he said.

"Another demand we have from the Centre is that it should supply additional 500 ventilators to hospitals and medical colleges across the state," he said.

Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally till Tuesday night was 1,13,445 and its fatality count was 5,537. It has the highest number of coronavirus cases among all the states in the country. ND NP NP