Our Correspondent / NEW DELHI

UNION Minister for Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan today inaugurated a plasma donation campaign jointly organized by Delhi Police at AIIMS, New Delhi. 26 police personnel donated plasma during the campaign today.

Terming the plasma donors as Plasma Warriors, the Minister said, plasma donation will develop as a movement in the country and it will have a far reaching effect. While inaugurating the plasma donation campaign, he said, anyone who has recovered from the coronavirus can donate plasma twice in a month.

Appreciating the role of the police personnel for donating the plasma, he said, their contribution will inspire others to come forward and join this movement. He said, the plasma trial has been conducted on 452 patients in 60 centres and the data analysis is underway. He informed that there is no harm in giving the plasma to the patients. He praised the role of corona warriors for playing an important role in containing the spread of the Coronavirus.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, the country is performing well in terms of recovery rate and fatality rate. He said, the recovery rate in the country is around 63 per cent and the fatality rate in India is around 2.5 which is least in comparison with the global average. He said, India is continuously ramping up the testing facilities and 1262 laboratories are conducting more than 3.5 lakh tests per day in the country.

In the Clinical Management Protocol of Covid-19, the Health Ministry put the Convalescent plasma under the investigational therapy which can be considered in patients with moderate disease who are not improving despite use of steroids.