According to the health minister, there is an adequate stock of COVID-19 drugs at all government hospitals and medicines are also provided to corporate hospitals
Government of Tamil Nadu inaugurated its first plasma bank and appealed to the recovered people to donate blood and save lives. The plasma bank was inaugurated at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai with ruling AIADMK MLA N Sathan Prabhakar, who recovered from COVID-19, becoming the first donor at the facility.
Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar appealed to the people to come forward and donate plasma to save lives while asserting that the state has done far better in managing COVID-19 compared to other states and even some developed nations.
According to Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan, the nine-member committee formed by the health department to streamline COVID-19 fatalities assessed all the deaths suspected to be linked to the infection in the city. Subsequently, the death toll in the state capital stood at 1,939 while that of the state rose to 3,144. The committee recommended that the 444 deaths would also fall under the category of COVID-19 deaths as per the ICMR guidelines ”though such cases were medically considered to have died due to comorbidity or other terminal illness”.
Radhakrishnan said, “The committee, in consonance with the guidelines issued by WHO and the Central government, found that 444 deaths occurred from March 1 till mid-July”.
Announcing the launch of plasma bank, the Health Minister tweeted: “Plasma retrieval will be done in 30 minutes, stored at 40 degree Celsius and used for COVID patients. Come forward and donate plasma. Together lets save lives.”
“Further, ‘Solidarity Trial’ to help identify treatment options for COVID-19 patients (at Tamil Nadu Government Multi-Super Speciality Hospital, Omandurar Estate, and Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital) is progressing successfully. We have adequate stock of COVID-19 drugs at all the government hospitals and we are also providing the medicines to corporate hospitals,” Vijaya Bhaskar said.