Enforcement of drug laws partially halted in Kerala as 60 staff members down with Covid-19

Chennai, January 27, 2022:

The third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has badly hit the operations of the drugs control administration in Kerala, especially in the state headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram. At least 60 staff members including 15 drugs control officers have been tested positive and they are at home on quarantine with treatment.  
 
The enforcement of Drugs and Cosmetics Act and the Rules in the entire state has partially halted. However, no ADC has been affected.

According to senior officers, the rise in the daily number of the positive cases in the capital district poses a big threat to the enforcement of the drug laws. The field officers’ routine inspections and sample collections have come down, following it the department has postponed all inspections and surprise raids to a further date, says the state drugs controller, Jayan Menon.
 
He said six drug inspectors of the 15 tested positive are infected with the virus for the second time. Several of the ministerial staff at the ADC and DI offices are not coming for duty every day because of sudden virus attacks. The DC said he is taking a distance from all other officials who are all in the grip of the pandemic as the situation is very serious in the state capital.

Meanwhile, the head office of the DCA issued a circular to all the chemist shops in the state asking them not to sell antibiotics without prescriptions. The DC said the department is getting complaints that people are buying antibiotics such as azithromycin and amoxicillin from medical shops without doctors’ prescriptions. He said because of the increasing Covid threat, the doctors are not doing private practice in their clinics and in the government hospitals medicines are given only after RT PCR tests. This forces people with light cough and cold to rush to the medical shops asking for antibiotics.
 
Whereas, the routine inspections at medical shops and sample collections from single doctors’ clinics in Malappuram district has halted because of virus infection to two drug inspectors. Dr. Nishith, senior inspector at Malappuram said the drugs control administration in the district is totally struggling as two of the three drug inspectors are Covid affected and one of them is tested positive for the second time.  He said the district has 3,100 drug storage premises including retail and wholesale dealers besides hundreds of single doctor clinics. For the last three weeks, all enforcement activities have come to a halt in the district due the rising number of Covid cases.
 
Apart from Thiruvananthapuram, the worst condition is in Ernakulam district where majority of the drugs control staff is tested positive. The regional drug inspector was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday due to illness.
 
K Mahesh, drug inspector at Kottayam said, so far only one staff was infected with the virus, but he is recovering. Pharmabiz