Constable Veerabhadraiah, 26, who is attached to Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) and who successfully battled COVID-19, became the first policeman in the State to donate his plasma on Saturday. “I hope it saves someone’s life. My senior officers also encouraged me and gave me confidence to donate my plasma,” he said.
Mr. Veerabhadraiah, who hails from Aurad, Bidar district, and lives at the police quarters in Koramangala, tested positive for the virus on June 26. He was hospitalised for over a week. While acknowledging that he was fortunate to have recovered, he said, “One need not fear the virus. In my experience at the hospital, many were suffering more from a fear psychosis than from the virus.”
Taking a cue from him, nine of his colleagues at the KSRP who similarly successfully recovered from COVID-19 have registered with the authorised plasma bank to donate their plasma. Plasma therapy for critical COVID-19 patients involves injecting plasma cells of someone who has been cured of the infection.
Karnataka State police chief Praveen Sood tweeted on Sunday, “They [policemen] are walking the extra mile for society. May their tribe increase.”
He further told The Hindu that many police personnel across the State were now keen on donating their plasma cells. “It is a voluntary process and we will not instruct anyone to do so. If someone is willing to donate their plasma cells and there is no plasma bank in their district, we will make arrangements to bring them to their nearest bank,” he said.
Meanwhile, the State police are slowly getting back on their feet after an initial wave of COVID-19 cases that had gripped the force. The recovery rate has only recently crossed 50% in the force. While the recovery rate of the department has been 56.5%, it is slightly better for the Bengaluru City Police, where 62.5% of those infected have recovered. As on Sunday morning, the State police force had seen a total of 3,002 cases, including 1,283 active cases, while the numbers for Bengaluru police were 1,377 and 506, respectively. There have been 20 deaths in the State police force, and 10 in Bengaluru police force.
