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

On Tuesday, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research, Balram Bhargava said that there is no benefit of plasma therapy in arresting mortality in moderate to severe cases of COVID-19. Convalescent plasma therapy has also not been recommended by the Ministry of Health as a mainstay of COVID-19 therapy and there is no proposal under consideration to set up plasma banks.

Addressing a press conference, Bhargava further apprised about the development of horse serum and clearance for the 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 their lives due to Covid-19, insurance of Rs 50 lakh each has been claimed.

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

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

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

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

READ: COVID-19: India to export N95, FFFP2 masks freely to countries across the world

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

In a tweet, the Ministry of Health wrote that the Central government of India along with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has ramped up the 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 the patients. So far over 7,99,82,394 successful COVID-19 tests have been performed. On October 4 the 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.

READ: Japan-South Korea sign agreement to allow people to take short business trips amid COVID

READ: EU's heath regulator reviewing Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in real-time