Black fungus: Demand, supply gap of medicine 'too wide to bridge'; need drastic steps, says HC

The Delhi High Court Monday said the gap between demand and supply of medicine -- Amphotericin B -- used for treating black fungus which is primarily affecting COVID-19 recovered people, is "too wide to bridge" and drastic steps are required to be taken. A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh, which heard for six hours the matter relating to various issues arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic, said the gap between the demand and supply is more than one-third and it cannot work at this pace.

The Centre indicated to the court about the expected supply of the medicine stock in May and June, early delivery of its import and ramping up of production.

The court directed the Centre to file a further status report with all the relevant details and listed it for hearing on May 27.


The bench was informed by the Delhi government's counsel that while on May 21, there were around 200 cases of Mucormycosis (black fungus) in the national capital, the number has increased to 475 as on Monday. SKV SA