Principle:

This policy is based on the 19/1/21 CBER document Updated Information for Blood Establishments Regarding COVID-19 Pandemic and Blood Donation.

Policy:

1. There is no COVID-19 laboratory testing requirement for routine blood donor screening.
2. Donors must be in good health and meet all blood donor eligibility criteria on the day of donation.
3. The blood establishment’s responsible physician must evaluate prospective donors and determine eligibility according to the blood donor criteria.
4. Donors with a diagnosis of COVID-19 or who are suspected of having COVID-19 and who had symptomatic disease should refrain from blood donation for at least 14 days after COMPLETE resolution of symptoms.
5. Donors who had a positive diagnostic test (RT-PCR SARS-CoV-2 or equivalent) but never developed symptoms, should refrain from blood donation for at least 14 days after the date of the positive test result.
6. Donors who are positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies but did not have prior diagnostic testing and never developed symptoms can donate WITHOUT a waiting period and WITHOUT a diagnostic test (RT-PCR).
7. Vaccination deferrals are as follows:
   1. Recipients of nonreplicating, inactivated, or mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines can donate blood WITHOUT a waiting period if #2 above applies.
   2. Recipients of live attenuated viral COVID-19 vaccines should be deferred for 14 days after receipt of the vaccine.
   3. Recipients who are uncertain which COVID-19 vaccine was administered, should wait 14 days.

Note that these rules do not address the special case of COVID-19 convalescent plasma donors.

References:

Updated Information for Blood Establishments Regarding the COVID-19 Pandemic and Blood Transfusion, CBER, US FDA, 19/1/21