India’s first plasma bank for Covid-19 patients became operational in Delhi on Thursday.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal appealed to recovered Covid-19 patients to donate plasma and help those suffering from the infectious disease. “We are starting a plasma bank in Delhi. This is the first plasma bank in India for corona treatment. So far, people have been facing a lot of problems in getting plasma. With this plasma bank we hope to address this issue,” Kejriwal said adding, “This bank will be successful only if people donate plasma. More and more people who have recovered from Covid-19 need to donate plasma.” The bank will be housed in Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences.

The Chief Minister then explained what makes a person eligible to donate plasma. “If you have fully recovered from coronavirus and are free of symptoms for 14 days, you can donate plasma,” the 51-year-old AAP leader said.

Plasma therapy involves transfusion of plasma from a convalescent coronavirus patient to a critical patient. The blood of a convalescent patient is rich in antibodies that are expected to help the critical patient recover. 

Kejriwal laid down the eligibility criteria for plasma donors. Any Covid-19 patient, who recovered from the disease 14 days back, is eligible to donate plasma. The donor should weight at least 50 kgs and in 18-60 age group. Women who have been pregnant even once in their lives cannot be donors. Cancer survivors, patients undergoing dialysis or who have hypertension or sugar imbalance cannot be donors. “Call us on 1031 or whatsapp on 8800007722.  If you are eligible on all parameters, a convenient time slot will be given to you to come to the hospital and donate plasma,” said Kejriwal.

“Once you register, a doctor will call you to ensure you are eligible to donate plasma. It takes about 45 minutes to 1 hour to donate plasma. Blood donation can cause weakness, plasma donation doesn’t. Rarely do we get such opportunities to serve others,” the Chief Minister said this afternoon. 

Donors will also get a certificate – Gaurav Patra-  signed by the Chief Minster. 

Plasma donation would take 45 minutes to an hour after basic tests are run on the donor. After this a “Gaurav patra” would be given to the donor acknowledging his service. Kejriwal said no patient should call directly on the helplines to get plasma. “The hospitals should call directly for plasma from our bank. This would be coordinated by them and not individual patient’s family,” the chief minister said.

Those aged between 18 and 60 years and weighing not less than 50 kg can also donate.

With over 89,000 total cases, Delhi has the highest number of cases in India after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. 

This afternoon, Arvind Kejriwal said: “The number of deaths linked to COVID-19 registered in a single day (in Delhi) have reduced. Till the time a vaccine comes, plasma treatment will be helpful. We are hoping that this will reduce the number of deaths. I have heard, Maharashtra has started trials on a huge scale. This is a matter of great happiness. We all need to learn from each other at this time.” 

Across India, the number of coronavirus infections has crossed the six lakh-mark; more than 17,000 patients have died so far.