India's Delhi to create plasma bank for treatment of COVID-19 patients

NEW DELHI -- The local government in Indian capital city - Delhi Monday said it will create a plasma bank for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

The announcement was made by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. He urged people who have recovered from the COVID-19 infection to come forward and donate plasma to help other patients.

"The plasma bank will start operation in the next two days. I appeal to COVID-19 recovered patients to donate their plasma," Kejriwal in a video address said.

The plasma bank will be set-up at the Institute of Liver and Biliary Science in the city. According to Kejriwal anyone who needs plasma will need a recommendation from a doctor.

Plasma therapy is one of the most discussed methods of treatment for COVID-19 and involves the transfusion of plasma from a convalescent coronavirus patient to a critical patient. The blood of a recovering patient is rich in antibodies produced by the body to fight the virus, which are expected to help the critical patient recover, Kejriwal said.

Clinical trials in plasma therapy started in Delhi in April.

India's top health research body Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) last month said there was no robust evidence to support plasma therapy as coronavirus treatment.

Delhi has the second-highest number of infections in India with 83,077 COVID-19 cases and 2,623 fatalities till date.

India's federal health ministry said on Monday morning that 380 new deaths due to COVID-19, besides 19,459 more positive cases, were reported across the country, taking the number of deaths to 16,475 and total cases to 548,318.