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On April 2, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which sets guidelines for blood donor eligibility in the United States, announced new guidelines. These new rules will allow many individuals, previously not eligible to give blood, to start donating. Although the changes are allowed by FDA to be effective immediately, blood centers such as Carter BloodCare need time to write procedures, modify their computer systems, and train their staff on how to implement these changes safely. 

Here at Carter BloodCare we are very excited about these changes, and are working on implementing them as soon as we possibly can, but it will take several weeks (possibly even months) to get them in place.

Carter BloodCare is working with doctors and hospitals to facilitate the collection of convalescent plasma under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Emergency Investigational New Drug (eIND) guidance. The FDA’s web site outlines the protocols for physicians who want to participate in the Investigational COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma - Emergency INDs.

According to the FDA web site, “One investigational treatment being explored for COVID-19 involves the use of convalescent plasma collected from recovered COVID-19 patients. It is possible that convalescent plasma that contains antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) might be effective against the infection.”