Satyendar Jain tested positive for coronavirus on June 17 (File)
New Delhi:
Delhi’s Minister of Health, Satyendar Jain, who was on treatment for COVID-19 in a private hospital, has been cured of the fatal infection and will be released today. The AAP leader received plasma therapy last week after developing pneumonia and difficulty breathing.
“Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain has had negative results for COVID-19, which is due to leave the hospital today,” said his office, according to the ANI news agency.
Mr. Jain had tested positive for the highly contagious infection on June 17, a few days after being admitted to the Rajiv Gandhi Super Specialty Hospital (RGSSH) in the national capital after suffering from a high-grade fever and having suffered a sudden drop in oxygen levels. He had first tested negative for the virus. His second test, however, was positive. “Today my COVID test was positive (sic),” he wrote on his official Twitter account.
He was transferred to the Saket Center at Max Hospital, south of Delhi, after his health deteriorated. He was put on oxygen. His health improved after being subjected to plasma therapy, an experimental procedure.
A team of experienced doctors from a few public and private hospitals monitored Mr. Jain’s condition, reported the PTI news agency.
Before Mr. Jain, Aatishi AAP MLA had also tested positive for the virus. Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tested the coronavirus earlier this month.
Plasma therapy involves the transfusion of plasma from a convalescent coronavirus patient to a critical patient. The blood of a convalescent patient is rich in antibodies which should help the critical patient to recover. The center said there was “no concrete evidence to support plasma therapy as a treatment for coronaviruses”.
Kejriwal said today that the Delhi government has received authorization to administer therapy to 200 patients in the nation’s capital. He said the procedure will help reduce the death rate.
Delhi has surpassed Tamil Nadu and Mumbai in terms of the total number of coronavirus cases. The national capital is the second worst COVID-19 affected state in the country after Maharashtra and suffers from a severe shortage of hospital beds.
