40 Punjab Police personnel come together for a noble cause, offer to donate blood plasma

Coming to the rescue of Corona patients, over 40 Punjab Police personnel, who were able to overcome the disease recently, have come together for a noble cause by deciding to donate blood plasma.

Interestingly, a majority of them are from rural areas of the state and are showing the way for others to serve the humanity.

Responding to Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh’s appeal, these police personnel have offered to donate blood plasma to save lives of other COVID-19-affected people.

The police personnel from Jalandhar, with Navjot Singh Mahal, SSP (Rural) himself leading the way after recovering from the infection, informed Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta who personally reached out to the convalescent officers and men to donate plasma after their mandatory two-week recovery period ends.

Gupta disclosed that within 24 hours of Mahal coming forward for plasma donation, 40 other police personnel also volunteered. Two cops –ASI Ram Lal and PHG Lakhwinder Singh – have already made the donation.

All the 33 personnel recovered from Covid-19 in Jalandhar Rural had committed to donate plasma, said the DGP, adding that an increasing number of plasma donors were also coming in from cops deployed in others districts of the state.

Punjab Police has created a special link for volunteers to donate plasma to help out other patients who were struggling with the disease, the DGP added. A special campaign had been launched to create awareness among the cured police personnel to come out for this noble cause. The DGP lauded the Punjab Police corona warriors for their dedication to duty and service to humanity.

With most of the volunteers asymptomatic, their inherent immunity was higher, the DGP added. With many other cops still under treatment for COVID-19, he expected to see more donors coming forward over the next few days.

As of July 28, a total of 831 Punjab Police personnel had tested COVID-19 positive, of whom 336 had recovered. Of these 303 had recovered till about two weeks ago, indicating that the number of plasma donors could go up significantly in the next few days. Currently, the department has 495 active cases and as more and more cops get cured, the number of volunteers was expected to see a sharp rise.

Punjab Police has in place an elaborate mechanism to test its personnel on frontline duty to ensure early diagnosis, isolation and treatment. The state government has set up one plasma bank in Patiala and is preparing to operationalize two more to strengthen its COVID-19 treatment and care network.