Our Correspondent / New Delhi
India’s Health Ministry today said that plasma therapy for COVID-19 was one of the therapies being experimented with but there was no evidence for its use as a treatment. Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said the use of this therapy without adequate safeguards could be “life threatening”.
The Official said, there is a need to project the good work happening out of implementation of the containment strategy. He said, such positive efforts related to COVID-19 will boost the confidence of the frontline workers in the fight against COVID-19.
He also said in the last 24 hours, 1,543 new cases of the coronavirus were detected in the country, of which 684 cases were cured. The recovery rate is now at 23.3 per cent. This comes even as the death toll due to the coronavirus pandemic crossed the 900-mark to reach 937 on Tuesday while the total number of infections soared to 29,974. According to new rules, patients with mild coronavirus symptoms can now stay in home isolation.
Briefing media in New Delhi, an Health Ministry official said, there has been progressive increase in the recovery rate in the country. The official said, no new cases of COVID-19 reported from 17 districts in the last 28 days.
He said, WHO data shows that the combined population of 20 nations where maximum COVID-19 cases have been found is almost same as India’s population and these nations have together reported 84 times the number of cases reported in India. The Official said, compared to the 20 nations where maximum COVID-19 cases have been reported, India has reported only 1/200 times the number of deaths as the total number of deaths in these 20 countries. He said, currently there are no approved therapies, including plasma therapy, for treatment of COVID-19. The Official said, until ICMR concludes its study and a robust scientific proof is available, Plasma therapy should be used only for research or trial purpose.