ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Pinellas County hospital leaders recently told commissioners they're running desperately low on the coronavirus drug Remdesivir.

Hospital officials also said the county commissioners have asked Gov. Ron DeSantis for help with the supply.

"They're running short," said Commission Chair Pat Gerard. "That's scary because they have so few treatments that they can use." 

Some trials show the experimental drug can reduce coronavirus recovery time. On Monday, Gerard sent a letter to Gov. DeSantis pleading for help in securing a remdesivir supply.

The letter states, "We can not stress enough the need for Remdesivir. We recently had one of our own Pinellas County doctors who needed Remdesivir, but the hospital ran out... They continue to advise that the shortage of Remdesivir along with the lack of medical personnel has created life and safety issues during this pandemic."​

Governor DeSantis has not yet responded to the letter but during a Tuesday press conference he said Florida had received 20,000 more vials of remdesivir.

"With this new shipment we have been able to secure more than 3,000 cases, which is 100,000 vials, for Florida hospitals," he said. ​"We are going to continue to be there for our folks in our hospital system and for these patients."​​

Gerard said she hopes the Governor has the "lifesaving" drug shipped to Pinellas County hospitals right away.

"We just wanted to let them know that we may have a bigger need then some of the other counties because of our elderly population," she said. "So, if you could just give us a little bit more we'd be happy and it'll get us through the week."​

Gerard said Pinellas County has 250 nursing homes with more than 13,000 residents. The commission chair also points out that 65 percent of the 364 COVID-19 deaths in Pinellas County so far has occurred in the past 4 weeks.