In a first, Indian doctors perform plasma therapy on COVID-19 patient at New Delhi's Max Hospital

In what comes as a leap in medical research and a first for India, doctors at the Max Hospital in New Delhi's Saket have started conducting 'plasma therapy' in the hopes of finding a cure for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a pandemic outbreak which is spreading like wildfire across the globe.

The sample case in this regard is a family of four from New Delhi's Defence Colony, all of who had contracted COVID-19 and were undergoing treatment at the Max Hospital. While the father, Jasbeer Chaddha, succumbed to the virus, the mother and the daughter of the family have been discharged.

The son is on the ventilator and is currently being administered the plasma therapy. The hospital applied the therapy only after being granted approval from the central government to conduct the treatment. This is the first case in the country where plasma therapy is being used.

Currently, as there are no vaccines or cure for the coronavirus, plasma therapy could prove to be a game-changer. China and South Korea have already used this method to cure COVID-19 patients.

Meanwhile, the family has alleged that their security guard attended events by the Tablighi Jamaat and he might have contracted the COVID-19 infection from the event at Nizamuddin Markaz and passed it on to the family. A complaint has also been filed with the police in this regard.

As the COVID-19 crisis exacerbates in India, the central government on Wednesday earmarked 170 districts as hotspots in the 'Red Zone' with the aim to adopt stricter lockdown measures in these regions for checking the pandemic outbreak in its tracks. The Red Zone hotspots are essentially the regions that have reported a significant number of positive cases, contributing more than 80% of cases in India with a doubling rate of less than four days.

Meanwhile, 207 non-hotspot districts ith clusters and non-infected districts have also been classified as 'Green Zone'.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has also stated that there is no community transmission of India so far, adding that the chain of transmission of coronavirus can be broken successfully if no case is reported for 28 days from a particular area.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Tuesday morning announced the extension of the countrywide lockdown till May 3.