500 Recovered Patients From Dharavi, Once A Covid Hotspot, To Give Plasma

Mumbai's Dharavi, once a COVID-19 hotspot, soon tackled coronavirus effectively and has it under control - for now. The sprawling slum has now taken the lead in plasma donation as well to fight the pandemic. A primary screening was organized in the densely populated slum for an upcoming plasma donation camp in the area where 25 per cent of recovered patients have registered as donors and many have already donated.

The screening was organized at a school in the area by Shiv Sena MP Rahul Shewale.

Dharavi, that registered just two new cases on Sunday, today registered nine cases. There are 98 active cases in Asia's largest slum from a total of 2,540 cases, authorities said today.

Over 2,100 people have recovered in Dharavi and 500 of them have agreed to donate plasma and more will be registering from the camp. Plasma donors from Dharavi are also been honoured by the city's Municipal Commissioner.

The doubling rate of cases in Dharavi has improved to over 238 days. The case growth rate stood at 0.37 per cent on Saturday.

A senior Municipal official says most recovered patients in Dharavi are young and were working essential services.

"If you talk about Dharavi over 2,100 people have recovered from Covid-19 and because many of them were working in essential services a lot of them are young i.e. 75 per cent of positive patients were between 20 and 60. In young people the plasma is effective because of the presence of anti-bodies and lack of co-morbidites," Kiran Dighavkar, Assistant Municipal Commissioner told NDTV.

MP Rahul Shewale says plasma has been collected from 49 people so far.

"Of the 400-500 people who responded positively, we screened 120 people and of them we found 29 people fit to donate plasma and we send them to Nair Hospital, Sion Hospital and KEM Hospital to collect plasma. 20 people were found fit to donate from Chembur. So far, we have collected plasma from 49 people," he said.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray also mentioned Maharashtra's efforts for plasma therapy to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an event to inaugurate three high capacity COVID-19 testing labs in Mumbai, Noida and Kolkata.

The Maharashtra Government, specifically the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, has put its weight behind plasma therapy as a possible line of therapy for critical Covid-19 patients. The state has over 1.48 lakh active coronavirus cases.