Goa will start treating Covid-19 patients in critical conditions with blood plasma therapy from next week, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said yesterday.
Sawant said that the Health Department was in the process of creating a plasma storage facility at the existing blood bank.
“We are procuring a plasmapheresis machine for treatment of patients with plasma voluntarily extracted from those who have recovered from Covid-19. The treatment will begin from next week,” Sawant told reporters here.
The chief minister said that a special pathologist as well as a doctor specialising in transfusion would also be appointed on a contract basis to facilitate the treatment.
“We have asked Health Secretary Nila Mohanan to start the process of hiring the personnel required,” Sawant said.
The chief minister said that the state government’s blood bank was being upgraded to store plasma for future use.
“We will freeze blood plasma units in a freezer at our blood bank so that it can be used at a later date,” he said.
In view of the rising Covid-19 cases in the state, the Health Department was in touch with its counterpart in Kerala, where treatment of patients in critical condition with blood plasma has yielded successful results.
Sawant also said that police had been ordered to crack down even on house parties.
His comments came days after a party organised for political workers by a Bharatiya Janata Party legislator caused embarrassment for the government.
“Parties will have to stop, whether it is at homes and outdoors. Police inspectors have been instructed,” Sawant said.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister and senior All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader P Thangamani yesterday tested positive for the coronavirus and was admitted to a Chennai hospital for treatment.
In a tweet, opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M K Stalin said he had spoken to Thangamani by phone and wished him a speedy recovery.
Thangamani is the second minister and the sixth lawmaker of AIADMK to get infected by the virus.
Earlier, Higher Education Minister K P Anbalagan, lawmakers K Palani, Amman K Arjunan, NSathan Prabhakar and Kumaraguru had tested positive.
Former minister and senior AIADMK leader B Valarmathi on Monday tested positive and has been admitted to a private hospital here.
Four DMK lawmakers too have tested positive .
Also yesterday, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren went into home quarantine after a minister and a legislator tested positive for coronavirus.
Jharkhand Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) Minister Mithilesh Thakur, Jharkahnd Mukti Morcha (JMM) legislator Mathura Mahto, and 20 journalists of Dhanbad districts have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The minister and legislator had earlier met the chief minister.
Principal secretary of the chief minister, Rajiv Arun Ekka, has also gone into home quarantine.
Thakur was admitted to the Rajendra Institute of Medical Science (RIM) in Ranchi and Mahto in a Dhanbad hospital.
l A day after a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lawmaker contracted Covid-19 in Odisha, ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA Prasant Behera has tested positive for the coronavirus, an official said yesterday.
Salipur MLA Behera is the second legislator in Odisha to have got the infection.
His personal security guard and driver have also contracted the virus. They have been shifted to a Covid hospital in Cuttack, the official said.
The Cuttack district administration has initiated contact tracing as the MLA had attended several programmes in his constituency.
Earlier, BJP’s Nilgiri MLA Sukanta Kumar Nayak had tested positive for Covid-19.
Students of class 9 from a slum area, who do not have access to Internet facilities and miss their online lessons, attend an open-air class taken by a college student, after authorities closed all schools in March following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in New Delhi yesterday.
