Assam to soon start plasma therapy to treat COVID-19 patients

Guwahati: Assam government has decided to set up a plasma bank in Guwahati in the next 4-5 days, announced state health minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma during a press conference on Wednesday.

The minister said, “We have already installed a plasma separator at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, and the by next week, we can start plasma treatment in Guwahati.”

This comes after New Delhi government’s decision to set up a plasma bank, and Maharashtra launched ‘Project Platina’, said to be the world’s largest plasma therapy trial for treatment of coronavirus patients with severe symptoms.

Sarma also informed that yesterday Union home minister Amit Shah called him up, and expressed concern over the COVID-19 situation in Guwahati. Following his meeting with DG Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has suggested to change the testing pattern in the state.

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Assam will launch a new ICMR suggested testing model called COVID-19 AG in the next 2-3 days which will bump up the state’s testing capacity. Under the new testing model, we will be able to get results within 1 hour.

In case a person tests positive, then its a confirmed positive, and in case a person tests negative, then a second RT-PCR test will be conducted for which 2-3 days time will be taken, informed the minister.

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