According to J&K administration, the valley has a total of 7630 retail chemist shops and 4331 wholesale shops, an average 65% of which open on a regular basis. (Photo: Reuters)

Jammu and Kashmir is reportedly going through a severe shortage of medicines due to the ongoing restrictions in the valley which were imposed prior to Centre's announcement of abrogating J&K's special status that it enjoyed Under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

However, District Magistrate Shahid Choudhary, while retweeting a media report of drug shortage in the Jammu and Kashmir, has affirmed in a tweet that the valley never ran out of medical stock.

"All concerns and worries are deeply appreciated but we were not low on medical stocks even for a single day. No interruption in supplies. Still open to help individual cases, if any," Shahid Choudhary tweeted.

All concerns and worries are deeply appreciated but we were not low on medical stocks even for a single day. No interruption in supplies. Still open to help individual cases, if any.

https://t.co/MZDlX8bDNC Shahid Choudhary (@listenshahid) August 23, 2019

In another tweet from August 14, Shahid Choudhary had claimed that many as 1166 out of 1666 medical shops in the Srinagar have remained open.

As many as 1166 medical shops are open. Cash machines have disbursed Rs 243.44Cr in last 4 days. All sorts of stocks being replenished as demanded. Agree, some people are still facing difficulties. We are trying to address every single problem flagged. Trust. #Srinagar. Shahid Choudhary (@listenshahid) August 14, 2019

According to Jammu and Kashmir administration, the valley has a total of 7630 retail chemist shops and 4331 wholesale shops, an average 65% of which open on a regular basis.

The administration also confirmed that all 376 notified drugs are available at government medical shops and also with private retailers, while 62 essential/life-saving drugs are also available.

The administration reported that medicines worth Rs 23.81 crore have reached retail outlets in the last 20 days, slightly above the monthly average.

Apart medicines, there were reports of a shortage of baby food as well, but the J&K administration has confirmed that valley has received fresh stocks of the same which is sufficient for at least the next three weeks.

The administration also said that three people have been stationed at Jammu and Chandigarh each to make arrangements for medicines and baby food at any given time.

The average delivery time from placement of an order is 14-18 hours from Jammu.