All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) has threatened to join the lockdown if chemists were not given COVID-19 vaccines on priority similar to healthcare and frontline workers.
In a press statement, AIOCD president JS Shinde and general secretary Rajiv Singhal said that 9.40 lakh chemists in India could anytime join the lockdown to protect and save the lives of its members as they were sidelined while considering vaccination priority.
The association said that despite all the dangers, every chemist of the country was continuously providing services to the suffering humanity of the country. Dispensing and distribution of medicine, AIOCD said was nothing less important than doctors, nurses hospital staff, and sanitization workers. The association said it was logical to vaccinate frontline workers, but in spite of repeated appeals chemists were sidelined for no reason. Since last year March 2020 till date, AIOCD said more than 650 chemists and pharmacists have lost their lives due to Covid infection.
It said that chemists/pharmacist and their staff were most vulnerable to infection as they closely interact with patients at shop counters.
Further, AIOCD pointed out that injection Remdesivir/Tocilizumab were taken under control by government, routed through its members but drugs were not made available even for its members. It said that next drug Amphterocin B, expected to go under government control, has disappeared from market.
AIOCD said that since they were ‘Jan Swasthya Rakshak Chemists” the association wanted to maintain the availability of medicines during this crucial corona period.
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