Bureaucrats in Punjab are all set to turn into saviours from the victims of COVID-19. As many as eight Punjab Civil Services (PCS) officers, who have recently recovered from the contagion, have decided to donate their plasma to other corona-positive patients.
Besides, the IAS officer couple — Ropar Deputy Commissioner Sonali Giri and Rural Development Department director Vipul Ujjwal — have also made up their mind to make the donation.
In fact, Sonali is encouraging other recovered patients from the district to come forward. “We both are going together for donating the plasma at Patiala this weekend,” Sonali told The Pioneer, adding that SDM Chamkaur Sahib has also offered to make the donation.
“We have 50 recovered patients who have consented to donate plasma, including 13 civil or police officers, and the remaining are from the public,” she said adding that we are trying to provide them free ride to Mohali or Patiala to facilitate them and encourage others
Other than the two IAS officer couple, as many as 16 PCS officers were infected by the virus, and have now recovered.
The officers were infected after no less than 40 of them attended a meeting of PCS Officers Association organized at Chandigarh.
Already, 40 Punjab Police personnel, who have recently recovered from COVID-19, had offered to donate their blood plasma — with the majority of them from Jalandhar (rural) including the Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Navjot Singh Mahal.
The PCS Officers Association, in a written letter to the Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan, has informed that eight officers — Gurdaspur Additional Deputy Commissioner Tejinder Pal Singh Sandhu, Local Government Deputy Director at Amritsar Rajat Oberoi, Sub-Divisional Magistrate (Gurdaspur) Sakatar Singh Bal, SDM (Hoshiarpur) Amit Mahajan, SDM (Ropar) Gurvinder Singh Johal, Assistant Commissioner Undertraining (EAC-UT) Deepankar Garg, SDM Mohali Jagdeep Sehgal, and SDM (Phagwara) Pavitter Singh — have offered to donate the plasma for treatment of patients.
In fact, the first Convalescemt Plasma Therapy was conducted at Fortis Hospital, Mohali, on Thursday with SDM Mohali Sehgal donating the plasma for his fellow COVID-positive DSP (Kharar) Pal Singh, who is presently undergoing treatment in the ICU.
For the therapy, a donor is first tested for COVID (IgG) antibodies to be eligible for donation. Specialized Plasma machines then separate blood into different components, retain only the desired component and return blood back to the donor. A person can donate plasma after their mandatory two-week recovery period ends.
Appreciating the decision, the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has described these officers as “Corona Conquerors” and urged all other cured patients to donate plasma.
“Encouraging to see donation of plasma by a Corona Conqueror Jagdeep Sehgal, SDM Mohali, who fought #Covid19 successfully, to Pal Singh, DSP Kharar, who's presently fighting #Covid19. Wishing Pal Singh a speedy recovery. Also urge all cured patients to donate plasma. #MissionFateh”,” tweeted Capt Amarinder.
“Sehgal has recovered from infection just about three weeks ago and donated his plasma to Kharar DSP whose condition suddenly deteriorated a night ago.
The preliminary tests conducted found Sehgal to be a fit donor with sufficient antibodies and blood match,” said Mohali Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan.
The State Government has announced to provide plasma ‘free of cost’ to all those in need.
The Chief Minister has already directed the state Health Department to strictly ensure that COVID-19 patients are not charged for plasma therapy and that nobody is allowed to buy or sell plasma, which has proven a life-saver in many cases in the absence of any cure for coronavirus.
Currently, the state has three plasma banks at Patiala, Amritsar, and Faridkot, but is struggling hard to find the donors.