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Buoyed by success, Tamil Nadu urges volunteers to donate plasma

Plasma bank was being set up at the RGGGH at a cost of Rs 2 crore, which would be the second biggest in Indi

Plasma therapy to treat Covid-19 patients was proving to be a successful method that the Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy had ordered for it to be taken up in a big way since there had been no drug of choice to treat the disease, State Health Minister C Vijaybaskar said on Friday.

The government had obtained necessary permission from Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and Central Drug Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) for the conducting the experiments in the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, which 20 patients were given the treatment and 18 of them were cured, the Minister said.

He called for plasma donors to come forward to help those who had been suffering from the disease and added that a plasma bank was being set up at the RGGGH at a cost of Rs 2 crore, which would be the second biggest in India.

Meanwhile, the Central team of experts who were on a three-day visit of Tamil Nadu, would up its proceedings and left for Delhi after holding discussions with the Ministers, officials and experts.

The total number of new cases in the State came down to 3680 on Friday with Chennai recording 1205 new cases and 27 deaths. The State-wide death figure was 64 with the districts registering more number of fresh cases: Thiruvallur 219, Thoothukudi 195, Madurai 192, Tirunelveli 145, Virudhunagar 143, Vellore 140, Salem 127, Tiruchi 109 and Kanyakumari 105.

In Chennai, Corporation sources said that the infection rate in North Chennai had been brought under control and more cases were now being detected in Central and South Chennai.

State Cooperative Minister Sellur K Raju was admitted to a private hospital in Chennai as he test positive for Coronavirus. Among those who tweeted to wish him a speedy recovery were Edappadi K Palanisamy, Deputy Chief Minister O Pannerselvam and Leader of the Opposition M K Stalin.

As a precautionary measure, the government had decided to disinfect the entire Secretariat premises by totally closing it down on Saturday and Sunday. Even on closed holidays, certain staff would visit their offices in the Secretariat, which now had been banned.

Also the government has revamped the top officers of the Field Support Team that ensures management of the containment zones, contact tracing, testing and quarantine in Chennai and the surrounding districts. Among the top officers who would not be in-charge of the four major zones are Kapilkumar C Saratkar (north), K Bhuvaneswari (east), N Baskaran (south) and M T Ganesamoorthy (west).

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