Health Minister stresses importance of plasma therapy in COVID-19 treatment

TEZPUR: State Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday took part in a plasma donation camp organized by Headquarter Army 4 Corps at Tezpur Medical College and Hospital (TMCH) in collaboration with National Health Mission, Assam. Around 40 Army personnel of Gajraj Corps, who had recently recovered from COVID-19, took part in today's plasma donation camp.

The one-of-its-kind plasma donation camp is expected to go a long way in the treatment of critically ill COVID-19 patients. GOC, Gajraj Corps, Lt Gen Shantanu Dayal, Member of Parliament, Tezpur HPC, Pallab Lochan Das, MLA of Borsola LAC, Ganesh Limboo, Principal Secretary, H&FW, Samir Sinha, Superintendent Police of Sonitpur, Mugdhajyoti Dev Mahanta, Principal and Chief Superintendent of TMCH, Dr Karuna Hazarika and other senior officials of the military and district administration along with health department officials were present in the meeting.

Speaking on the occasion, Sarma lauded the dedication of the Indian Army for standing with the people of Assam in this hour of need. He spoke very high of the Indian Army for responding to this call of humanity and thanked the Gajraj Corps for showing unstinted support to the government's fight against COVID-19.

Speaking about the importance of convalescent plasma therapy in treating critically ill COVID-19 patients, Sarma said that timely intervention with plasma therapy had shown good recovery among such patients, adding that 368 such patients had received plasma therapy in Assam so far. He also expressed his gratitude to GOC, Gajraj Corps, Lt Gen Shantanu Dayal and other senior officials of the Army for mobilizing so many donors to come forth and voluntarily donate their plasma and said that such an overwhelming response to this initiative would help save many precious lives in the State. The Health Minister directed the health department officials to take special care of all probable plasma donors who volunteer to donate their plasma.

GOC, Gajraj Corps, Lt Gen Shantanu Dayal said the Indian Army was proud to be part of such a noble initiative and lauded the visionary efforts of the Health Minister and said the Indian Army would always stand with the people of Assam.

Speaking on the occasion, Principal Secretary, H&FW, Samir Sinha said that Assam was one of the first States in the country to adopt plasma therapy as a line of treatment against COVID and said that today's initiative would mark a significant chapter in Assam's fight against COVID-19 and that there was need to turn plasma donation into a mass movement so that precious lives could be saved. Two donors who had previously donated plasma at TMCH, CEO of Sonitpur Zila Parishad, Diganta Baishya and Ekramul Hussain, along with a patient who had received plasma therapy at TMCH, Purujit Nath shared their experiences at the meeting. The Health Minister later visited the headquarters of 4 Corps and offered his tribute to the martyrs at the memorial.

Later in the day, the minister also took part in the first meeting of the District-level Monitoring Committee for Sonitpur district formed for implementation of Arunudoi scheme in the district in the presence of all the committee members. The modalities of the scheme were thoroughly discussed in the meeting. The scheme aims to provide a monthly sum of Rs 830 to around 19 lakh economically backward families/ households in the State with 15,000 beneficiaries per LAC. Preference will be given to families having widows/ PwDs/unmarried women/ separated women/ divorcee members and then to families primarily run by women, poor families without NFSA cards and then to poor families with NFSA cards. The list of beneficiaries will be periodically reviewed by the DLMC and names will be excluded if the financial status of the family is seen to improve. However, households without any female members, former and current MPs, MLAs, members of Panchayati Raj, and government employees, as well as employees of cooperative societies, will be excluded from the scheme. The minister directed the MLAs to finalize the targets as soon as possible for taking further action.

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