Team Herald
Panjim: Even as the Central has announced likely discontinuation of Convalescent plasma therapy as a treatment for COVID-19 patients, the Goa Government has decided to continue to perform the therapy as it has yielded “excellent” result in the State so far.
The decision was taken based on the recommendation of the expert committee, constituted to monitor coronavirus cases.
Addressing media persons after chairing an expert committee review meeting on Friday, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said that the State will continue to perform plasma therapy in combination with medicines like remdesivir and steroids for treating COVID-19 patients, as the recovery rate has been excellent.
“The Health protocol will keep changing but we will continue to treat the coronavirus patients with plasma therapy as per the advice given by the state-level expert committee, which comprises doctors from government and private sectors. We are getting excellent result,” he said.
Rane said that 263 patients were given plasma therapy during their treatment. “The recovery rate is around 70%, which is good,” he said.
As per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Centre was considering to remove convalescent plasma therapy from the national clinical management protocol for COVID-19. The study by ICMR found that plasma didn’t particularly help lower mortality or severity of COVID-19 in patients treated with it.
“Overall, we are much better in handling the situation. The mortality has also reduced to single digit and we want to ensure there is further decline,” the Minister said adding that the Dean of Goa Medical College (GMC) is currently conducting audit of deaths due to COVID, assessing the age group, co-morbid conditions, time taken to report to hospital, etc.
Stating that he does not want to have a “false sense of satisfaction” over the drop in the number of COVID-19 cases, Rane said adding that 2,000 to 2,500 tests need to be conducted daily to know the exact number of infected patients. “I admit that there have been decline in number of testing per day, which has resulted in drop of new cases,” he said.
“But in order to get a proper picture of COVID, it is important that we increase the number of tests per day,” he added.
Rane said multinational companies can tie up with the private labs to test their employees. “The government facility of testing is for the common people,” he added stating that antigen tests will be conducted on a mass scale.
The minister also said that the State government has distributed around 3,500 home isolation kits for those patients who chose to go for home quarantine. “A majority of patients now prefer home isolation, due to which, the beds remain empty in the state-run hospitals,” he said.
Rane added that the government will also be releasing Standard Operating Procedure for the family members of the COVID positive patient, deciding as when they should go for test. He also said that at present 60 patients are being treated for post COVID complications.
Reiterating that District Collectors and the Home department have been directed to keep a vigil on night clubs, Rane said that tourism is not driven just by night parties and it is a “shame” that COVID safety norms are not being followed.
“Young people are being given plasma as we speak because that is what the situation is. Onus has to be on owners of these types of facilities and clubs and the individual who go there. Children do not visit such places. There are adults. It (onus) is on them… Ultimately, we are going through a pandemic and we don’t know how long it will last,” said Rane.
