Mumbai: While there is a shortage of the life-saving drug Remdisivir in public hospitals, the medical rapid action team of the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) has been successful in making it available to seven of its frontline workers currently under treatment at various city hospitals and one in Navi Mumbai.
The undertaking had already ordered 110 vials of the drug, of which an initial consignment of 42 had arrived. The BEST's Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Anil Kumar Singhal stated, the undertaking had procured the medicine for precisely such an eventuality.
"Seven patients were in critical condition, on ventilator support and urgently required the drug," Dr Singhal told The Free Press Journal. The medicine was provided to four patients at SevenHills and one each at Cooper and Nair Hospitals in the city and the civic-run hospital at Vashi, Navi Mumbai.
"We had procured the drug in advance, so that in case there was a shortfall of the drug, we would have a back-up. This purchased has been made exclusively for the BEST staffers," said Dr Singhal.
There have been 545 Covid cases amongst BEST employees, of which 180 are active and the recovery rate has been 75 per cent until now. Most frontline workers have contracted the infection in the line of duty.
Meanwhile, members of the BEST Kamgar Sanghatana held a peaceful protest at the Santacruz depot on Friday, demanding adequate protective gear and relaxation in duty during the pandemic.
The management has fired 40 BEST staffers, mainly from the transport wing of the undertaking, for not reporting to duty.
BEST spokesperson Manoj Varade has stated, every employee of the electricity wing are provided with PPE suits when they visit sites for fault repair, while drivers and conductors have been provided with masks, gloves and sanitisers.
