India / Karnataka to give ₹5,000 to COVID-19 survivors who donate plasma

Bengaluru: The State government has decided to provide an incentive of ₹5,000 for patients who have recovered from COVID-19 and donate their plasma, which will be used to treat patients.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar said this was to encourage patients to come forward to donate.

He said that plasma therapy was administered on five patients in the State. Of these, three had recovered, the Minister said.

He said that after a person donates plasma, other factors such as matching their blood groups would have to be looked into. In Karnataka, 18,466 patients had recovered from COVID-19 and discharged. In Bengaluru, 5,455 patients had been discharged and were eligible to donate plasma.

Delay in results

Speaking of the delay in receiving the test results, Mr. Sudhakar said that in a week’s time, test results would be received within 24 hours. He said that Karnataka would further ramp up testing and aim to conduct 40,000 to 50,000 tests. The Minister, who held a meeting with 25 private medical colleges in the State, said that the lab in each of these colleges test at least 500 samples per day.

Home isolation

Health Commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said that 4,000 people who tested positive for COVID-19 are currently in home isolation. Mr. Sudhakar said that those aged above 60 would be under reverse isolation.

Mr. Sudhakar said that booth-level task force committees would be formed soon and they would undergo orientation and training. The Medical Education Minister also said that out of 8,658 beds, as many as 2,574 were currently occupied.