In Chennai, a plasma blood bank has been launched by the State Health Department to facilitate convalescent plasma therapy to COVID-19 patients. <br />''<br />''The State Health Minister Dr C Vijayabhaskar inaugurated it at the Government Rajiv Gandhi General Hospital in the city. It has the facility for seven people to donate blood plasma at a time.<br />''<span style="font-weight: bold;"><i><u><br />''</u></i></span>Blood plasma in the new facility in Chennai can be preserved for as long as a year. A person can donate 500 ml blood plasma 14 days after recovery from COVID-19 infection, provided he or she has no other co-morbid condition. Doctors say, after a gap of two weeks the donor can offer the blood plasma once more. <br />''<br />''<span style="color: #222222;">In Chennai, the convalescent plasma therapy has been experimented in 26 patients and it proved effective in 24. Therefore the health department is planning to establish more such plasma banks in the Stanley and Omandhurar Super-Specialty Hospital in Chennai, the Tamil Nadu Dr MGR Medical University in the city and the Government medical college hospitals at Trichy, Coimbatore, Salem and Tirunelveli in future. </span><br />