The Union government has increased the allocation of the drug Remdesivir to Tamil Nadu and the state will recieve 20,000 doses per day as against 7,000 that it recieves now. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Sunday in a letter to Union Minister of Industry Piyush Goyal thanked the Union government for accepting his request and increasing the supply for Remdesivir to 20,000 vials per day from the current 7,000 vials. Last week, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin spoke to Piyush Goyal over a call and demanded the union government to provide 20,000 Remdesivir vials for the state in order to meet the demands of government and private hospitals.
However, on May 17, a tweet by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for supplying Remdesivir “based on his request”.
Edappadi K Palaniswami said, “I Thank @PMOIndia for increasing Tamil Nadu's quota of Remdesivir on my request. The much needed supply would be helpful to the state in treating COVID patients. This would bring respite for thousands of patients' family members waiting in long queues (sic).”
On May 15, Leader of Opposition in a letter to Prime Minister Modi said, “I request you to consider the following: To increase the of supply of oxygen to Tamilnadu, to increase the supply of Remdesivir injections to Tamil Nadu and to increase the allotment of vaccination doses to Tamil Nadu.”
Both the leaders, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin and Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami had asked the Union government to increase the supply of Remdesivir on May 10 and May 15 respectively.
Meanwhile,on Sunday, Tamil Nadu government also instructed the authorities to make anti-viral drug Remdesivir directly available to private hospitals in order to avoid overcrowding at the counters.