Maharashtra government is planning to make doctor prescription mandatory for buying COVID-19 self-test kits from chemists after it was observed that people despite testing positive for the virus were not reporting it to government authorities.
State Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope had said few days ago that people not reporting a positive report is becoming a major issue and that needed to be tackled. He had also raised the issue in his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi pointing out that centre needs to look in to the matter.
Sources in the Foods and Drug Administration department on Saturday told The Hindu that the proposal for making doctor prescription mandatory is being discussed for which it has to be included in scheduled drugs list.
On Saturday, Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar said that chemists will have to note down Aadhar number of the customer seeking COVID self-test kit. “Self test kits are making it difficult to understand exact number of positive patients in the city as not all are reporting to administration,” said Ms Pednekar.
Sources within the FDA said that the administration is also in the process of deciding which category of scheduled drugs is suitable for self test kits.
