With the coronavirus cases crossing the 12,000-mark in Srikakulam, the district administration has laid its focus on giving a wide publicity to plasma therapy to ensure quick recovery of patients.
Two youth—Prasanth and Krishna Vamsi— who recovered from the infection recently donated plasma at the Indian Red Cross Society’s blood bank. The plasma was administered to two patients.
IRCS chairman P. Jaganmohana Rao said special training was imparted to a team to ensure safe collecting of plasma from the COVID-19 patients who have recovered from the infection recently.
Collector J. Nivas, who attended a blood donation camp organised by Lions Club here on Thursday, urged the club and other organisations to create awareness on the benefits of plasma therapy.
Club president Chintada Krishnamohansaid they would organise plasma donation camps. Club former president Natukula Mohan said the association would take help of the village volunteers for collecting details of the recovered patients and convince them for plasma donation.
Testing capacity
Meanwhile, the district administration has set a target of conducting 5,000 COVID-19 tests per day. According to officials, 2,08, 431 samples have been tested in the district till date, of which 12,546 have been confirmed positive.
By Thursday, the active cases in the district stood at 4,616 and 1,952 patients are undergoing treatment in designated hospitals and COVID care centers. The rest have been out under home isolation.
The Collector asked the officials to improve facilities at the COVID care centers in view of the sharp spike in the cases.
Augmenting facilities
The COVID-19 facilities are being augmented to cater to the needs of the growing number of patients. The officials have been instructed to shift the patients in the need of critical healthcare to the designated hospitals and centers immediately to prevent deaths, addd Mr. Nivas.