Plasma therapy for Covid patients from Monday Only 13 new cases in Telangana in 24 hrs

Hyderabad: Health Minister Eatala Rajender said Telangana has got the nod for convalescent plasma therapy from the Centre and it would be done on Covid-19 patients in critical condition from Monday.

He said that 13 new cases were confirmed with 29 recovered patients getting discharged on Friday. Talking to reporters here, the Health Minister pointed out that a majority of the positive cases were reported from the GHMC, Vikarabad, Suryapet and Gadwal. While 44 families accounted for 260 positive cases in the GHMC, 25 families accounted for 83 infected cases in Suryapet, 30 families and 45 positive cases in Gadwal, whereas 14 families accounted for 38 positive cases in Vikarabad.

On an average, six to seven members from each family were found to have been infected. Since the infection is spread around these families only, we are hopeful of containing its further spread in these areas. Eatala pointed out that each member in every house in containment areas in these four areas are being enquired for presence of virus related issues.

Elaborating on plasma treatment permission, Eatala said that he spoke on this issue with Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in video conference held on Friday.

Eatala further informed that KCR had himself intervened and spoke to the firms manufacturing PPEs and N 95 masks to meet the one lakh requirement as the Centre was just giving a few thousand each time. Eatala informed that he had constituted a panel to analyse each of the 25 deaths due to Covid-19 in Telangana so far. Only a few have died solely affected by the virus while a majority of them had co-morbid conditions that deteriorated their health further once they tested positive, he said.Eatala took objection to private hospitals in districts shying away patients coming with respiratory issues. He said that not all respiratory problems can be considered as Covid-19 and hence private hospitals should see such patients taking due precautions. He also said that no directions were given to private hospitals or clinics to stop OP services or general consultations. "We only asked private hospitals to defer their elective surgeries," he added.