Panaji, Jul 8 (IANS): Goa will start treating Covid-19 patients in a critical condition with blood plasma therapy from next week, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Wednesday.

Sawant said that the Health Department was in the process of creating a plasma storage facility at the existing blood bank.

"We are procuring a plasmapheresis machine for treatment of patients with plasma voluntarily extracted from persons cured of Covid-19. The treatment will begin from next week," Sawant told reporters here.

The Chief Minister said that a special pathologist as well as a doctor specialising in transfusion would also be appointed on a contract basis to facilitate the treatment.

"We have asked Health Secretary Nila Mohanan to start the process of hiring the personnel required," Sawant said.

Sawant said that the state government's blood bank was being upgraded to store plasma for future use. "We will freeze blood plasma units in a freezer at our blood bank so that it can be used at a later date," he said.

In view of the rising Covid-19 cases in the state, the Health Department is in touch with its counterpart in Kerala, where treatment of Covid-19 patients in critical condition with blood plasma has yielded successful results.

Goa currently has 759 active coronavirus cases.