Health Minister Vili Beros on Wednesday denied the claim by the Croatian Association of Hospital Doctors (HUBOL) that Croatian hospitals are running out of a drug used to treat COVID-19 patients, saying that hospitals have sufficient quantities of Remdesivir.

The claims by some health workers and medical associations about the shortage of Remdesivir in Croatian hospitals are not true, the health minister said in a statement.

HUBOL said on Wednesday that Croatian hospitals currently have only 483 doses of Remdesivir at their disposal, which is enough to treat only 80 COVID-19 patients, while 613 are being treated in hospitals.

Beros said that Remdesivir is not applied to all hospitalised COVID-19 patients and that the present supplies are sufficient to meet the hospitals’ needs.

Currently, 613 people are being treated for COVID-19 in 37 hospitals in Croatia, but only 39 of them are in intensive care units.

Beros noted that Remdesivir, as well as other drugs used in the treatment of COVID-19 patients, is not intended for wide use, but is used only for a targeted group of hospitalised patients in line with special criteria. He added that the hospitals that lack Remdesivir can meet their needs by ordering it from the hospitals that have it in sufficient quantities, as has been the case during the pandemic.

The Health Ministry said it has launched the procedure to order more quantities of Remdesivir for Croatian hospitals via the integrated EU procurement system.