Covid-19: ICMR gets approval to conduct second phase of plasma therapy trials, says health ministry
The trials will be conducted in 21 hospitals across Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, TN, Madhya Pradesh, UP, Punjab, Karnataka, Telangana and Chandigarh.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday said that the Indian Council of Medical research has received an approval from the National Ethics Committee to conduct the second phase of plasma therapy trials in 21 hospitals across the country.
The medical procedure involves the transfusion of blood plasma from a Covid-19 patient who has recovered to another patient who is critically ill.
“Project PLACID – Phase-II Open-Label Randomised Controlled Trial of convalescent plasma by ICMR has received the approval of Covid-19 National Ethics Committee,” Health Ministry’s Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said at the Centre’s press briefing. “Under this, ICMR will conduct the trial in 21 hospitals, to assess safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma therapy.”
Agarwal said five of these hospitals were in Maharashtra, four in Gujarat, two each in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and one each in Punjab, Karnataka, Telangana and Chandigarh.
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Last month, the Health Ministry had said that there was no evidence yet to definitively say that the procedure could be used to treat Covid-19 patients. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, meanwhile, said last week that the clinical trials in the Capital would continue since the results were encouraging.
At the press briefing, Agarwal said that India’s Covid-19 recovery rate was now 29.36%, which means almost one in three hospitalised people have recovered. He added that 216 districts across the country have not reported any Covid-19 case so far.
Agarwal said that the Centre will soon provide a new list of districts falling under the red, green and orange zones to the states. The classification depends on the number of active cases and the doubling rate.
The health ministry official added that the people need to adapt to a new way of life amid the pandemic. “As we talk of relaxations to lockdown, we have to deal with the challenge of learning to live with the virus, for this we need to make the required prevention measures a part of our life, through a behaviour change process,” he said.