March 17 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's government said on Wednesday that it allocated over 24 million levs ($14.6 million/12.3 million euro) for the purchase of a further 36,000 flacons of remdesivir, a medicine used in the treatment of Covid-19, amid a spike in the number of hospitalised patients infected with the virus.
The financing will go to provide 6,000 flacons of remdesivir per month over a period of six months, the government said in a statement following a weekly meeting.
In November, the government gave the green light to the health ministry to spend 14 million levs to procure 17,280 flacons of remdesivir by the end of 2020.
Remdesivir is manufactured by US-based company Gilead Sciences and sells under the Veklury brand name. Clinical trials have shown that remdesivir speeds up the recovery of patients with Covid-19. Veklury was the first medicine approved by the European Commission for treatment of COVID-19.
According to data published by the health ministry, as of Wednesday, there are 287,568 registered cases of Covid-19 on the territory of Bulgaria, including 228,816 recoveries and 11,579 deaths associated with the disease. The number of hospitalised patients infected with Covid-19 reached 7,600 on Wednesday.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)