COVID-19 and Transfusion Blood

Abstract

WHO declared that Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was pandemic on March 11, 2020 There have been 209,839 confirmed cases with 8,778 deaths and 4 2% fatality in the entire world up until March 19, 2020 The Korean Center for Diseases Prevention and Control (KCDC) announced that although 13 asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 donated their blood in Korea, there was no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in their donated blood There have been no worldwide reports of transfusion-transmitted infection with Coronavirus Specific measures for assessing COVID-19 were not yet required on blood collection and testing, except for the ban of blood donation during the quarantine due to the travel risk over the endemic area or the risk of confirmed cases or their close contactors Even the risk of blood safety associated with an infection may usually be milder than the risk of blood shortage during the endemic Thus, the assessment for COVID-19 in transfusion blood should continuously gain new evidence in Korea as well as throughout the world (Korean J Blood Transfus 2020;31:61-66)