In a positive development, the first COVID-19 patient to receive plasma therapy in Pune has recovered from the disease. The recovered patient is a 47-year-old woman, with multiple co-morbidities including hypertension, hypothyroidism and obesity. After plasma therapy, she tested negative after two rounds of tests but is still under observation at Sassoon Hospital. This is also the city’s first successful plasma therapy recovery.

State Health Minister Rajesh Tope tweeted on Thursday that the plasma therapy conducted on a Covid-19 patient at Sassoon Hospital has been successful.

The Plasma therapy uses antibodies from the blood of a recovered coronavirus patient to treat another critical patient. At least two weeks recovered COVID-19 patients are encouraged to donate plasma.

A 51-year-old man was the first patient to fully recover from coronavirus disease and decided to donate the blood plasma, according to authorities of Sassoon General Hospital.

As per Indian Council of Medical Research, plasma therapy is still an experimental procedure to treat COVID-19. ICMR further said that hospitals and institutions planning to provide plasma therapy should do so using protocols provided by the Institutional Ethics Committee.

The Union Health Ministry also warned hospitals in the country against the use of plasma therapy. Since, it has the potential to cause life-threatening complications.

Pune city’s COVID-19 tally reached 5,436 on Saturday after 269 people tested positive for novel coronavirus, while the death toll touched 264 as & people succumbed to the infection.