The Government plans to apply price caps on medicines and other products or services related to care for Covid-19, according to the Minister of Health, Hernando Cevallos.
The official pointed out that this measure would be taken to avoid price speculation, given the high demand for these products due to the third wave of infections.
“Before the omicron variant, a greater consumption of medicines has been generated throughout the country. We respect freedom of enterprise, but what we are not going to allow is what happened in the first wave to happen, that a luckily minority sector greatly affected the population. Entrepreneurs speculated on the serious health situation and prices skyrocketed, oxygen and the price of ICU beds in clinics skyrocketed,” Cevallos said in an interview with Successful.
He added that, to implement the cap, members of the Executive will have meetings with representatives of pharmacies, clinics and oxygen supplier entrepreneurs.
“There has to be a limit, a price ceiling. This week we are going to sit down with the association of pharmacies and drugstores in the country, also with businessmen from the clinics and oxygen, but we all have to understand that we have a commitment to the country,” he added.
Likewise, he emphasized that businessmen must assume their responsibility to serve the people, so the State must prevent the freedom of the market from turning into speculation.
Along these lines, the head of the Minsa pointed out that they will modify the protocols to alleviate the demand for molecular tests, a measure that will go hand in hand with avoiding price speculation.
Kingston is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
