Pressure is mounting on Jamaican health authorities to review the regimen for the dispensing of a crucial drug in the arsenal for treating COVID-19, which has killed 139 people here and threatens greater tragedy with positivity levels on the weekend trending at almost one in three persons.

Supplies of remdesivir, a drug on clinical trial that was administered to United States President Donald Trump recently, are sourced by local hospital pharmacies from overseas merchants on a per-prescription basis, Jamaica’s chief pharmacist group has said. Delivery may take two to three days to reach patients in intensive care units who present with oxygen deficits.

That window of delay could compromise clinical care for COVID-19 patients, Pharmaceutical Society of Jamaica President Ernestine Watson has said.

MORE