ONGOLE: With the spurt in COVID-19 cases in Prakasam, the district authorities have decided to go for plasma therapy. Specialist doctors of the Government General Hospital held a meeting here on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Dr D Sreeramulu, Medical Superintendent of GGH, which discussed various medical procedures to treat coronavirus cases effectively.
The District Collector has also given his approval to the proposal to introduce plasma therapy in Ongole GGH to treat coronavirus cases. The proposal has been submitted to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for approval. "If we get the ICMR approval for the introduction of plasma therapy at Ongole GGH to treat COVID-19 cases, it will help improve the rate of recovery, besides minimising the rate of mortality," Dr Sreeramulu said.
Further, the GGH authorities have decided to use three newly identified medicines to treat COVID-19 cases. Vacant posts in the GGH will be filled and a CT scan and other sophisticated equipment will be procured to improve medical services.
520 active cases remain in Prakasam
As many as 44 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the district on Tuesday and 114 persons were discharged from Ongole GGH. At present, the number of active cases in the district is 520. The district crossed one lakh-mark in collection of samples.
In all, 1,01,809 samples have been collected so far. Of the total, 1,705 tested positive and 91,679 negative. Results of 8,425 samples are awaited. Two persons who died in Markapur, tested positive for Covid-19.