Imran praises team for help in Covid-19 crisis.

Byline: Ikram Junaidi

ISLAMABAD -- Just a day after the national tally of coronavirus cases crossed the 200,000 mark, Prime Minister Imran Khan praised his team for helping him navigate the country through the Covid-19 crisis and expressed the hope that the worst of the crisis would be over if the masses took all the precautionary measures.

Over the past 24 hours, the country reported 56 deaths and 4,233 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the national tally of cases to 205,647 with 4,154 fatalities.

In a tweet, PM Khan said: 'My team was amongst the first to enforce smart lockdowns. I am proud of it for helping me continue to navigate our country through the Covid19 crisis. InshaAllah, from now onwards if we follow SOPs we will see off the worst of this crisis.'

Also as 92,624 of the 205,647 patients have recovered since Feb 26 when the first cases was reported, the government has planned to approach the recovered patients to help spread awareness among the masses regarding the disease.

Also many families have pinned their hopes on the recovered patients for the availability of plasma to treat moderate or serious Covid-19 patients amid the heinous sale and purchase of plasma.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Zafar Mirza told Dawn that although the Ministry of National Health Services had not taken any position on plasma therapy, it was a fact that the availability of plasma had become easier due to considerable number of recovered patients.

On April 9, the Clinical Study Committee (CSC) of Drap allowed clinical trials of convalescent plasma for the purpose of passive immunisation during the Covid-19 pandemic in Pakistan. The application was submitted by Professor Dr Tahir Shamsi, principal investigator and chairman of the National Institute of Blood Diseases and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Karachi. As per study, convalescent plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients is injected into the bodies of moderate and serious patients for the purpose of passive immunity and to prevent patients from going on ventilators.

However, some of the people who recovered from the Covid-19 started demanding tens of thousands of rupees for donating their plasma. Some laboratories also started illegal business of the plasma, as it is believed that antibodies are formed in the blood of the Covid-19 victims and, once they recover from the disease...