No evidence to prove plasma therapy can cure COVID-19, ICMR still studying its efficacy, says health ministry

The Health Ministry on Tuesday said currently plasma therapy is at experimental stage and there is no evidence yet to support that it can be used as treatment for COVID-19. Addressing a press briefing, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said currently there are no approved therapies for COVID-19 and there is not enough evidence to claim that plasma therapy can be used for treatment of the disease. [caption id=“attachment_8237661” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Image by HenkieTenk from Pixabay.[/caption] “ICMR has launched a national-level study to study efficacy of plasma therapy in treatment of COVID 19,” he said. “Till ICMR concludes its study and a robust scientific proof is available, plasma therapy should be used only for research or trial purpose. If plasma therapy is not used in proper manner under proper guidelines, then it can also cause life threatening complications,” said Agarwal. The official said that the doubling rate of coronavirus cases now stands at 10.2 days. He further said that in the last 24 hours, 1,543 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported, taking the total cases to 29,435. “6,868 COVID-19 patients, which is 23.3 per cent of total cases, have recovered so far,” he added.