Karnataka offers Rs 5000 to recovered COVID-19 patients who donate plasma

The initiative comes even as a minuscule number of recovered coronavirus patients have opted to donate their plasma to others.
Karnataka offers Rs 5000 to recovered COVID-19 patients who donate plasma
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With appeals to patients to donate plasma not being enough, the Karnataka government has opted to pay people who have recovered from coronavirus to give their plasma for plasma therapy.

At a video-conference with reporters in Bengaluru on Wednesday, Karnataka Education Minister K Sudhakar announced that the government would pay a sum of Rs 5,000 to those who donate their plasma.

“Minister Dr. Sudhkar appeals to recovered people to donate their plasma. Rs. 5000 to be provided to every plasma donor as a mark of encouragement and appreciation,” a release from the department said.

So far, there have been 17,390 recoveries from coronavirus in the state, with 4,992 patients recovered in Bengaluru.

According to news reports, only about 10 people who have recovered from coronavirus in Bengaluru have donated their plasma for the benefit of other critically ill patients in the plasma therapy centre set up at HCG Hospital in the city.

Increase in testing

Besides this, the press release from the government announced, “State crosses 9 lakh tests milestone; (testing) capacity to be further enhanced to conduct 50,000 tests per day.”

Plans were also being made to increase the testing capacity of the state, the minister said in the media briefing. “In next 15 days, 58 medical colleges together will be able to test about 25,000 to 30,000 samples every day. Private hospitals and labs together will be able to test another 10,000 samples per day. Together, the testing capacity will be stepped up to 40,000 to 50,000 per day.”

Besides, medical colleges are being roped in to ramp up testing. “The minister held a meeting with 25 private medical colleges and institutions which are yet to establish testing labs. All 25 labs have been instructed to start labs and upgrade equipments within a week to test minimum of 500 samples each day,” the press release said.

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