‘What Delhi did yesterday, US does today’: Kejriwal on Trump’s plasma therapy announcement

Trump had on Sunday hailed FDA authorisation of a coronavirus treatment that uses blood plasma from recovered patients.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal used the announcement by US President Donald Trump of using the plasma therapy against Covid-19, saying what Delhi did yesterday, America does today.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal(HT photo)

“They used to say, back in the day - what America does today, India would do tomorrow. Delhi has changed it. Now - what Delhi did yesterday, America does today. Congratulations Delhiites for achieving this for our country,” Kejriwal tweeted.

 

He also attached an update from news agency ANI about Trump making the announcement to use plasma therapy.

Trump had on Sunday hailed FDA authorisation of a coronavirus treatment that uses blood plasma from recovered patients, a day after accusing the agency of impeding the rollout of vaccines and therapeutics for political reasons.

“This is what I’ve been looking to do for a long time,” Trump said at a White House news conference. “Today I’m pleased to make a truly historic announcement in our battle against the China virus that will save countless lives.”

The FDA, explaining its decision, cited early evidence suggesting blood plasma can decrease mortality and improve the health of patients when administered in the first three days of their hospitalization.

The agency also said it determined this was a safe approach in an analysis of 20,000 patients who received the treatment. So far, 70,000 patients have been treated using blood plasma, the FDA said.

Kejriwal had launched Delhi’s first plasma bank last month at state-run Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) for treatment of Covid-19 patients.

Under plasma therapy, antibodies from the blood of a person who has recovered from Covid-19 are taken and transfused into a coronavirus infected patient to boost the immune system to fight the infection.

More than 700 Covid-19 patients in the national capital have been administered convalescent plasma therapy till now. The youngest to have received plasma from the government bank was 18-years-old and the oldest was 94-years-old. The gender-wise breakup of the data shows that among the recipients 522 were males and 188 females.

The total number of coronavirus positive cases stand at 1,61,466 in the national capital. As many as 1,450 new Covid-19 cases and 16 deaths were reported in Delhi on Sunday.