Health minister Raghu Sharma said on Wednesday that plasma therapy has proved effective in defeating coronavirus (Covid-19) in the state.

“There is a need for plasma to treat serious patients of coronavirus disease,” said the minister, appealing corona survivors to donate plasma.

He said plasma donation is the great act of kindness during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sharma said that treating serious corona patients with plasma therapy was started at Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur and it has been 100% successful.

“Permission has been sought from ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) to start treatment with plasma therapy at other medical colleges,” he said.

“At present, patients are being treated with plasma therapy and given new life at Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota and Udaipur,” the minister said.

Sharma said that soon Bikaner and Ajmer will get permission to start treatment with plasma therapy. He said micro-level planning is being done by the government to start plasma therapy at hospitals in each district headquarters. He said all this would become effective when more and more survivors donate plasma.

He said that the government, understanding the importance of plasma therapy, has set up Plasma Bank at SMS Hospital. He said that there will be no weakness or any problem after donating plasma and with this, lives of many people could be saved.

According to the medical experts, any person aged between 18 and 60, who was tested corona positive through RT-PCR test having symptoms of fever and cough and has turned negative after treatment of 14 days, can donate plasma.

The health minister said that at present the biggest problem is corona infected people not having any symptoms. The top priority is to identify asymptomatic people and treat them.

He said that the government would buy 12,000 pulse oximeters to identify such people. He said that if asymptomatic people are identified on time, spread of corona infection could be controlled to a great extent.

Sharma said that although compared to the country, the spread of coronavirus infection in Rajasthan is less, but it could be stopped by remaining alert and cautious. He said that all the district collectors have been directed to impose local lockdown as per the requirement, but it is not the complete solution. He said that the increasingly vicious circle of the virus could be broken if the general public follow the protocol that is not to go out without any important work; wear a mask while going out; avoid going to crowded places and frequently wash hands with soap.