Awareness is need of the hour as Mangaluru awaits plasma therapy centre

Nireeksha Shetty | coastaldigest.com

August 14, 2020

The increasing number of covid-19 cases and confusions about a standard treatment for this ailment has been a cause of panic amongst the general public in coastal Karnataka. On the other hand the Dakshina Kannada’s covid-19 fatality rate is far higher than entire Karnataka’s covid-19 mortality rate. According to experts, plasma therapy is one of the ways that have shown remarkable results in saving the patients with serious conditions.

Although this comes as a sigh of relief to the public inflicted by fear, the problem is that there is no plasma therapy facility in Mangaluru city or other parts of the district. In fact the only place in the Karnataka which has received permission from the ICMR to set up a center is HCG Hospital, Bengaluru.

Zakaria Parveiz, a social activist and the convener of Mangaluru-based Wellness Helpline, which has been working seamlessly in the medical and health sector amidst the covid-19 pandemic, believes that the lack of facility coupled with the lack awareness in the people in Dakshina Kannada will be a barrier in the utilization of the plasma treatment to its full potential.

“Currently the donors in the district have to travel to Bengaluru to donate plasma. Besides, many are hesitant to donate plasma,” said Mr Parveiz. "There’s also a misconception amongst the potential donors that their immunity will be reduced if they donate plasma. The lack of knowledge has created fear around this otherwise simple procedure," he added.

D Vedavyasa Kamath, the MLA of Mangaluru City South, said that they are in talks with the district administration about setting up a plasma therapy center in Mangaluru. "We have to follow the procedure and get orders from the state government to the Health Department and the District Administration. We have already initiated the work," he said.

U T Khader, MLA of Mangaluru constituency feels that that all the districts in the state must have plasma treatment facility. "The government should firstly issue a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the setting up of the plasma bank," he said and added that along with this the government must also make a database of the recovered patients and create an awareness encouraging them to donate plasma. Mr Khader says that the doctors and the health department should take up the cause of creating awareness about plasma donation as they are the more reliable source. “This can save many lives,” he adds.

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IndiGo CEO says less than 1,000 cancellations on Dec 6; normalcy by Dec 15

News Network

December 5,2025

New Delhi, Dec 5: IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers issued a public apology this evening after more than a thousand flights were cancelled today, making it the "most severely impacted day" in terms of cancellations. The biggest airline of the country cancelled "more than half" of its daily number of flights on Friday, said Elbers. He also said that even though the crisis will persist on Saturday, the airline anticipates fewer than 1,000 flight cancellations.

"Full normalisation is expected between December 10 and 15, though IndiGo cautions that recovery will take time due to the scale of operations," the IndiGo CEO said.

IndiGo operates around 2,300 domestic and international flights daily.

Pieter Elbers, while apologising for the major inconvenience due to delays and cancellations, said the situation is a result of various causes.

The crisis at IndiGo stems from new regulations that boost pilots' weekly rest requirements by 12 hours to 48 and allow only two night-time landings per week, down from six. IndiGo has attributed the mass cancellations to "misjudgment and planning gaps".

Elbers also listed three lines of action that the airline will adopt to address the issue.

"Firstly, customer communication and addressing your needs, for this, messages have been sent on social media. And just now, a more detailed communication with information, refunds, cancellations and other customer support measures was sent," he said.

The airline has also stepped up its call centre capacity.

"Secondly, due to yesterday's situation, we had customers stranded mostly at the nation's largest airports. Our focus was for all of them to be able to travel today itself, which will be achieved. For this, we also ask customers whose flights are cancelled not to come to the airports as notifications are sent," the CEO said.

"Thirdly, cancellations were made for today to align our crew and planes to be where they need to start tomorrow morning afresh. Earlier measures of the last few days, regrettable, have proven not to be enough, but we have decided today to reboot all our systems and schedules, resulting in the highest numbers of cancellations so far, but imperative for progressive improvements starting from tomorrow," he added.

As airports witnessed chaotic scenes, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stepped in to grant IndiGo a temporary exemption from stricter night duty rules for pilots. It also allowed substitution of leaves with a weekly rest period.

Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has said a high-level inquiry will be ordered and accountability will be fixed.

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