Health Ministry finalizes acquisition for 10,600 doses of Tocilizumab to treat severe COVID-19 forms

The Health Ministry (MS) finalized a public acquisition for 10,600 doses of Tocilizumab, a drug necessary for the treatment of severe forms of COVID-19, said, on Tuesday, at private broadcaster Antena 3, the interim Health Minister, Cseke Attila.

"Regarding Tocilizumab, which is administered only in hospitals and regarding which I took over a certain approach relating to supply, but which I categorically didn't interrupt, because the procedures started must be continued here, tomorrow, I will make the list public too, because I've been hearing a lot of stories through the system, stories which are not true, they must be presented. I'm referring to the situation in which in some hospitals it's said the Health Ministry isn't giving out the drug. Regarding Tocilizumab, in the period prior to the interim mandate I became, a decision was made for a stock of 6,064 doses of Tocilizumab be accessible to hospitals, a list of hospitals, hospitals that mainly had to deal with and treat severe COVID patients. Tocilizumab being for a more severe form or a more severe stage of the disease," said the minister.

He stated that hospitals have at their disposal another 1,700 vials of Tocilizumab.

In what regards the medicine Remdesivir, Cseke Attila said that 40,000 doses are available nationally.

In his opinion, wave four has a "more abrupt, more sudden, more brutal" tendency than the other waves of the pandemic.

"And then that maximum number of ICU beds that we reached in a prior wave - 1,612, if I'm not mistaken - might not be enough. It's important to find solutions daily and this number of ICU beds increase," Cseke Attila showed. AGERPRES