Goa will set up plasma bank, says health min

GOA HAD REPORTED ITS SECOND-HIGHEST SINGLE-DAY SPIKE IN THE CORONAVIRUS DISEASE (COVID-19) CASES ON FRIDAY AFTER 94 MORE PEOPLE WERE FOUND INFECTED

IN THE STATE

PANAJI: Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on Saturday said the state will have a plasma bank to treat coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients.

He said Goa Medical College and Hospital already has the facilities required to operate such a bank and people who have recovered from the infection would be asked to come forward to donate plasma.

A decision on setting up such a bank will be conveyed to the Indian Council of Medical Research soon, he added.

He said GMCH’s department of transfusion medicine will be given more human resources.

Convalescent plasma therapy, also called passive antibody therapy, seeks to obtain plasma from the blood of people who have recovered from the infection to inject into patients undergoing treatment.

Meanwhile, a 74-year-old woman became the fifth person to succumb to the coronavirus disease in Goa, which has so far reported more than 1,500 positive cases, a senior official of the state health department said on Saturday.

The woman from Salcette tehsil in South Goa, who was admitted to ESI hospital after testing positive for the coronavirus disease, died on Friday night, the official said.

“She is the fifth person in the state to succumb to the coronavirus disease,” he said.

Goa had reported its second highest single-day spike in the coronavirus disease cases on Friday after 94 more people were found infected.

It pushed the state’s tally beyond the 1,500-mark, the health department had said.

The number of positive coronavirus disease cases in the state stood at 1,576 till Friday night, of which 800 were active ones.

They are undergoing treatment at different Covid Care centres in the state.