100,000 people have now offered to donate COVID-19 convalescent plasma

2 July 2020

More than 100,000 people have now offered to donate convalescent plasma after recovering from COVID-19.

A donors holds a bag of his plasmaWe are appealing for more people to donate plasma for a national treatment trial. The antibodies of people who have recovered could help save the lives of people who are struggling to develop an immune response.

The milestone was reached last night (1 July). The total at midnight was 100,298. People can offer to donate via a form on the NHS Blood and Transplant website.

We are prioritising donations from people who are more likely to have high antibody levels. Around 6,500 donations have been taken so far.

Dr Lise Estcourt, Director of NHS Blood and Transplant’s Clinical Trials Unit, said: “Thank you to everyone who has helped us reach this milestone – we know many donors have been through a lot during their own illness.

“This potentially lifesaving treatment trial can only succeed if enough people donate.

“We need more people to come forward, so we can take as many donations as possible from people with higher antibody levels.

“People who were more ill generally have higher antibody levels – this often includes men, the over 35s, and people from Asian backgrounds.

“If you’ve had coronavirus or the symptoms, and you live near a donor centre, please help us fight the coronavirus by offering to donate convalescent plasma. Donation is safe and easy.”

NHS Blood and Transplant’s Clinical Trials Unit is collaborating on the trial with the RECOVERY and REMAP-CAP platform trials.

Donating convalescent plasma

Convalescent plasma is being collected at our 23 donor centres around the country, and several pop-up donor centres.

Donation takes about 45 minutes. Your body usually replaces the plasma you’ve donated in 24-48 hours. Your body quickly replaces the antibodies and people can donate plasma as often as every two weeks. 

Media contacts

For additional information please contact Stephen Bailey in the NHSBT press office on 07525 299 016 or stephen.bailey@nhsbt.nhs.uk