Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers D.V Sadananda Gowda announced that additional 30100 vials of Amphotericin-B have been allocated to all the States/UTs and Central Institutions on Monday, of which 50 vials will be distributed to Assam.
On May 21, the health department of Assam had issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) after detection of this case of mucormycosis in a private hospital at Guwahati. On May 19, Assam lost its first patient to black fungus.
On May 27, Gowda announced that the additional 80,000 vials of Amphotericin-B have been allocated to all the States/UTs and Central Institutions, while on May 26, 29,250 vials of Amphotericin- B drug were allocated to all the states.
Meanwhile, the 43rd GST Council announced on Saturday that it has decided to exempt the import of Covid related medical goods including Amphotericin B injection for free distribution. This exemption shall be valid up to 31st August 2021.
Further, a consignment of 200,000 vials of the injection arrived from US in India.
Many states have declared black fungus as a epidemic disease including Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu and Bihar under the Epidemic Act 1897.