Ministers to promote plasma donation

Bhubaneswar: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday roped in his cabinet colleagues to promote plasma donation in the state after critically-ill Covid patients responded well to the plasma therapy.
Naveen has assigned different districts to his ministers, who would visit the districts and encourage recovered patients to donate their plasma to treat critically-ill patients, said a communication from the chief minister’s office.
The ministers have also been asked to facilitate donation while the chief minister said he would regularly review status of plasma donation.
While Niranjan Pujari has been given the responsibility of Puri district, Bikram Keshari Arukh will oversee the plasma donation process in Ganjam and Kandhamal, official sources said.
Districts assigned to other ministers include Prafulla Kumar Mallik (Bargarh), Ranendra Pratap Swain (Bhadrak, Kendrapada), Padmanabha Behera (Jharsuguda, Boudh), Pratap Jena (Mayurbhanj, Cuttack), Arun Sahoo (Nayagarh, Khurda), Sudam Marndi (Sonepur), Susanta Singh (Sambalpur, Balangir), Naba Das (Kalahandi, Nuapada), Tukuni Sahu (Deogarh, Sundargarh), Jagannath Saraka (Gajapati, Koraput), Dibya Shankar Mishra (Dhenkanal), Ashok Panda (Angul), Samir Dash (Jajpur), Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi (Balasore), Premananda Naik (Keonjhar), Raghunandan Das (Nabarangpur and Jagatsinghpur), Padmini Dian (Rayagada) and Tusharkanti Behera (Malkangiri)
In Odisha, as many as 15,200 Covid-19 positive persons have so far recovered, including 808 on Friday. The recovery rate in Odisha is more than the national average. It is heartening to know that many recovered patients have come forward to donate plasma, said a senior government official.
While the state government has set up plasma bank at Cuttack and approved for Rourkela, plasma therapy has started in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Berhampur. Two more plasma banks will be set up at Berhampur and Bhubaneswar.
A recovered patient can donate plasma four weeks after his/her recovery. One unit of plasma can be used to treat two critically-ill patients.