Jharkhand will begin plasma therapy treatment for Covid-19 patients at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), the state’s lone tertiary care centre, from next week, joining a handful of other states like Delhi, Maharashtra and Kerala that to have already done so.

Breaking the news from his official twitter handle on Saturday, state health minister Banna Gupta said, “Chief minister Hemant Soren will inaugurate plasma therapy treatment for Covid patients at RIMS on Tuesday, July 28. After ICMR’s approval, some states have successfully conducted plasma therapy trials on Covid-19 patients. We too have now readied to begin it in our state.”

Later talking to The Telegraph Online, Gupta said that Indian Council of Medical Research had given an in-principal nod to Jharkhand’s proposal for plasma therapy in April but it took time to make arrangements. “RIMS was asked to do all the groundwork and ready infrastructural support for this. We are finally ready to start. We hope that this move will emerge as one of the decisive steps in our fight against Covid-19,” he said.

Under this therapy, plasma is extracted from the blood of a recovered Covid-19 patient and injected in the critically ill patients. The antibodies present in the body of a patient who has recovered is extracted from the plasma for injecting into another patient. However, a recovered patient must have crossed the convalescence period of three weeks before he can qualify as a donor. The entire procedure requires the consent of both the patient and the donor.

State health department sources said that RIMS was rolling out plasma therapy on a pilot basis. Following its success, other medical colleges and hospitals in the state would be allowed to do so. “This therapy will only be for patients who are in critical condition. More than 90 per cent Covid fatalities in our state are because of comorbidity conditions and those who are above 60 years of age. We hope that once plasma therapy begins, fatalities would be contained,” said a health department official.

As per the state health department’s morning bulletin on Saturday, as many as 7,250 people have tested positive for coronavirus across the state. Of these, 3,297 have recovered while 3,254 are undergoing treatment. As many as 69 people have died.