HYDERABAD: Minister of Health and Family Welfare Eatala Rajendar may have given a call to the Covid recovered patients to come ahead and donate plasma, however, one major issue stopping them from coming forward is the fact that over 80 per cent them have not been tested again to confirm that they are Covid negative and virus free.
Owing to this issue, they have no proof to show they are eligible to donate antibody, 28 days later.
Several States including Telangana with a high number of cases have decided to not conduct Covid negative tests after 14 days as it added to the burden on the labs. Instead the method followed is to have another fortnight of isolation to ensure all traces of Coronavirus are eliminated in the patient.
Because of this, the handful of private hospitals in the city using convalescent plasma therapy are reluctant to take in such donors fearing contamination of their premises.
Express confirmed this with several hospitals managing Covid patients, which are following the rule set by Director General of Health Services and Central Drugs Authority- wherein one negative lab test for Covid-19 at least 28 days prior to donation is required.
If the donation is before that, not only is the negative test needed, but a Nucleic Acid Test (NAT) to check for antigens has to be done twice in a 24-hour period, which also has to come negative.
Akhil Enamsetty, an advocate and two time Covid plasma donor, voluntarily working on connecting plasma donors, stresses that this was a major hassle as it delays the donations at the hour of need.
“By the time a patient is identified from the limited pool of donors and convinced and the tests are done, the opportunity is lost. Every day at least 50 calls come seeking plasma and number of donors coming forward is half,” he said.
Step up vigil in border areas: Bhupalpally Collector
Bhupalpally: Jayashankar Bhupalpally District Collector Md Abdul Azeem on Saturday said that a total of 40 positive cases have been reported from the district of which 15 are in the government hospitals in district headquarters, 11 in home isolation, two at Gandhi Hospital and one each at MGM and CKM Hospitals.
In a review meeting at the Collectorate, the Collector said that the drivers transporting coal and sand to the district should be subjected to thermal screening. He directed officials to step up vigil along the borders of the districts