Plasma donation in Surat inches close to 1,000 mark

SURAT: Surat city that has been leading in convalescent plasma donations in the state is now just a few steps from crossing the 1,000-mark.
According to different blood banks in the city, till Sunday, a total of 939 people had donated their plasma and many more were looking forward to helping other Covid-19 patients with similar donations.
This blood banks at Surat have achieved this milestone in just over two months. While the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) run SMIMER Hospital and at New Civil Hospital (NCH) got permission for plasma collection in first week of July, two more city-based blood banks
Later, on 28 July, two more city-based blood bank — Lok Samarpan Raktdan Kendra and Surat Raktadan Kendra — got nod for plasma collection from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).
Sources said at the blood banks said that till date 1,569 units of plasma have been issued to patients for convalescent plasma therapy in the city
SMIMER Hospital is leading in plasma collection since the beginning and now it has collected plasma from 535 donors. About 222 people donated their plasma at NCH while, 150 and 32 people donated their plasma at Lok Samarpan Raktadan Kendra and Surat Raktdan Kendra respectively.
“A large number of people, employees of industrial units, are donating plasma. Many diamond units are encouraging their employees to donate plasma and help other patients under treatment,” said an official of one of the blood banks.
“Forty-two of our employees have donated plasma till now. We encouraged our employees to help Covid-19 patients,” Nagji Thummar, owner of Gopinath Gems, told TOI. As per the ICMR guidelines, a Covid-19 infected patient can donate plasma 28 days after recovery.