With all approvals in place, Project Platina, the state government's trial of testing plasma therapy as an effective treatment for COVID-19 patients, is set to begin from Monday. The project involves 17 blood banks.

These blood banks are part of government medical colleges. These will begin collection of plasma from recovered patients, and this trial will deal with patients displaying severe symptoms Senior state government officials said that the project, being funded by the state, will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday. "This is the largest trial being conducted in the country that will involve several hundred patients and 21 medical colleges including four from Mumbai. The plasma will be collected by 17 blood banks run by the government medical colleges and the trial will take three months to complete," said an official from the Directorate of Medical Education and Research.