'No benefit of plasma therapy', says ICMR; apprises about horse serum for COVID treatment

On Tuesday, Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research, Balram Bhargava said that re is benefit of plasma rapy in arresting mortality in moderate to severe cases of COVID-19. Convalescent plasma rapy has also t been recommended by Ministry of Health as a mainstay of COVID-19 rapy and re is proposal under consideration to set up plasma banks.

dressing a press conference, Bhargava furr apprised about development of horse serum and clearance for clinical trial has been given.

 "An ICMR study has clearly established in arresting mortality in moderate to severe cases of Covid-19. Following a cue from it, we have developed horse serum, for which we have got clearance for clinical trial."

Meanwhile, responding to a question, Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Union Health secretary said 95 healthcare workers who lost ir lives due to Covid-19, insurance of Rs 50 lakh each has been claimed.

"In 95 cases of deaths of healthcare workers engd in Covid-19 duties, insurance has been claimed for Rs 50 lakhs each. 176 claims are in process. In dition, 79 claims are yet to be received from different states," Bhushan said.

RE: India continues to report declining trend of active COVID-19 cases: Health Ministry

On Tuesday,  Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) said that India's active cases comprise merely 13.75 percent of total positive cases of country, standing at 9,19,023.

So far, while 66,23,815 positive COVID-19 cases have been recorded in total,  country continues to report a trend of steily declining new cases. According to latest update by MoHFW, cumulative positivity rate is 8.28% and daily figure is 7.52%.

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MoHFW: 'India has scaled up COVID-19 testing'

In a tweet, Ministry of Health wrote that Central government of India along with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has ramped up COVID-19 testing in a calibrated manner. India has also performed over 15 lakh tests in a single day. According to MoHFW, high levels of testing helps in early identification of COVID-19, prompt isolation, and ensures effective treatment for all patients. So far over 7,99,82,394 successful COVID-19 tests have been performed. On October 4 total number of samples tested were 9,89,860. India has exponentially scaled up its testing capacity from just one test in January to more than 7.9 cr in October.

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