Gurgaon: Since its inauguration on July 30, the district’s plasma bank has seen only 75 patients come forward to donate blood after recovering from Covid-19, health officials said. That is only 0.6 percent of the 11,243 patients who have already recovered from the illness in Gurugram so far. The numbers, however, have started to pick up.

With the number of reported infections in the district steadily rising — at a growth rate of about two percent, and clocking well over 200 new positives each day — the district health department over the weekend made an appeal to those who have recovered, to come forward and donate antibody-rich plasma, which be administered to moderate patients opting for plasma therapy, as a mode of treatment. Officials, however, said that over the past week the number of donors consenting to donate plasma has increased. By August 30, a month after opening, the bank had taken plasma samples from about 40 donors. The remaining 35 donors have come forward in the past week itself.

“We are getting four to five new donors each day now, but it has taken a lot of effort. We make at least 150 calls per day, so that’s a conversion rate of about three percent. People are very hesitant, despite the fact that the blood bank is located nowhere near a Covid treatment facility,” said Shubhi Kesarwani, nodal officer in charge of the project. Kesarwani added that a team of 15 volunteers, belonging to organisations such as the District Red Cross Society and the Cannwinn Foundation, are involved “in some capacity or the other” in keeping Gurugram’s plasma bank running, including providing pick up and drop services to donors, and cold calling recovered patients to seek plasma donations. “We have also prepared a standard set of FAQs, which are provided to all recovered patients. It has helped to clear up some of their apprehensions,” Kesarwani added.

While health department officials were reluctant to point to one singular reason as to why people are refusing to donate, they said that it is likely due to fear of revisiting hospitals and medical centres, particularly after having endured the ordeal of recovery. They also said that stigma associated around the illness could very well be holding back some donors. “For this reason we have put out an appeal through the public relations office over the weekend,” said Dr Jai Prakash Sharma, the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme’s district surveillance officer in Gurugram.

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