India’s first-of-its-kind plasma bank for COVID-19 patients was opened in the national capital on Thursday. Set up at the state-owned Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS), the plasma bank will act as the repository for plasma for patients with critical cases of COVID-19.
Delhi Chief Arvind Kejriwal, while opening the facility via a video conference said that 58,000 patients have recovered from COVID-19 in the national capital and if all, barring certain medically unfit persons, donate plasma, it could save a lot of lives.
Plasma bank starts from today.. https://t.co/THxcAPeiSC
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) July 2, 2020
Delhi was one of the first states to give the go-ahead for plasma therapy in April and Kejriwal said the results so far have been very encouraging.
“We need people who have recovered to come forward and donate plasma. Use this opportunity to help save other people’s lives", said Kejriwal.
In plasma therapy, antibodies from the blood of patients who have recovered from COVID-19 are used to treat severely infected patients.
A healthy person between the ages of 18 to 60 and with no comorbidities can donate plasma. He/she should have recovered at least three weeks before donating and tested negative for COVID-19 twice.
Delhi has a caseload of 89,802 so far, with 27,007 active cases, according to data released by the federal Health and Family Welfare Ministry. SOme 59,992 patients have recovered, while 2,803 people have succumbed to the infection.