Telangana has received permission to treat Covid-19 patients with convalescent plasma therapy, Health Minister Eatala Rajender said on Friday.

He said the state had already applied to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for the permission and since there was delay in granting it, the issue was taken up with a request to process the application on war-footing.

“Now they have asked us to go ahead saying the permission is deemed to have been given,” he told reporters.

Rajender said the therapy will be used on the patients who are in critical condition.

Under this therapy, blood is collected from patients who have recovered from Covid-19, plasma is separated from it and then administered to patients.

He said 13 more coronavirus positive cases were reported in Telangana on Friday, taking the total number to 983.

There were no fatalities on Friday while 29 patients were discharged from hospitals after they recovered.

So far 291 persons have been discharged. The number of active cases stands at 663. The virus has so far claimed 25 lives in the state.

The minister said 500 samples were tested since Thursday evening and out of them, 13 tested positive.

He claimed that Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan patted the state for taking effective steps in controlling the Covid-19 cases.

The minister said majority of positive cases so far were registered in four places. In Greater Hyderabad, 260 positive cases belonged to 44 families while in Suryapet, 83 from 25 families were found infected. As many as 45 patients in Gadwal district belong to 30 families.