Five patients with COVID-19, who were in a very serious state at the National Clinical Hospital, recovered because they were treated with convalescent plasma as well. Another ten patients of the same hospital are close to being cured, Minister of Health, Labor and Social Protection Viorica Dumbrăveanu told a news conference.

So far, 35 persons donated plasma after recovering from COVID-19, IPN reports.

Svetlana Lupu, of the Ministry of Health, said the treatment with plasma is administered only to patients who are in intensive care at the National Clinical Hospital and the Emergency Medicine Institute. “We cannot say that this is a panacea. The given procedure does not annul and does not postpone the standard procedure.  Everything goes according to protocol,” she stated.

Tatiana Zatyk, head of the Ministry’s Primary Medical Assistance Division, said the patients with mild forms of infection are treated symptomatically. They are treated as in the case of viral infections, amigdalitis. In case of fever, Paracetamol is administered. The asymptomatic persons must self-isolate to reduce the risk of infecting other persons.

National Public Health Agency director Nicolae Furtună told the same news conference that the result of the tests for COVID-19 depends on the quality of taking, transporting and processing samples. If a sample is taken from a person who recently ate or drank, the risk for the test to be falsely negative is very big. The tests done in Moldova are of a high quality and didn’t deliver erroneous results.

Epidemiologist Alexei Ceban noted that the COVID-19 infection rate declined from 2.2 to 1.24. The average incubation period remains 5-6 days. More than 28,000 tests have been done so far. The average age of the infected persons is 47, while of the persons who died is 66. The urban population is more affected that the rural one. There are more women than men among those infected.