Covid-19: Testing times for plasma banks as demand goes through the roof

The first of a two-part series looks at challenges involved in plasma therapy

As his mother-in-law, a Covid-19 patient, started developing breathlessness, Gurugram-based management professional Sumit Singh (name changed) sent out an SOS on social media to find a plasma donor.

It took him two days to find an eligible donor to get two units of plasma, one from Delhi Plasma Bank and the other from a Pitampura blood bank. While one asked for a replacement donation, the other charged Rs 18,000 for a single unit of plasma.

“Plasma therapy can only start if your test reports are positive and my mother-in-law’s tests came negative twice before we tried another lab...Many people are