Press Release:
Decline in cases, sizable reserves temporarily suspend Nuvance Health Plasma Donation Centers
Registry to remain open for future donors
Danbury, Norwalk, Conn., Poughkeepsie, NY — July 13, 2020 —The Nuvance Health Convalescent Plasma Donation Centers at Danbury Hospital, Norwalk Hospital and Vassar Brothers Medical Center have been put on hold for the near term.
The program is no longer actively collecting donations due to a decline in COVID-19 cases in New York and Connecticut, in addition to a sizable supply of plasma already in reserves. Nuvance Health has more than 600 units of plasma stored for future use.
After working with the New York Blood Center and the American Red Cross to procure donations at the start of the pandemic, Nuvance Health opened its own donor centers in April to meet demands and to rapidly increase available plasma. Plasma contains antibodies that can fight infection and potentially help critically ill patients fighting COVID-19.
Since then, 302 patients were treated with convalescent plasma across the Nuvance Health system, both through in-house donations and those from the New York Blood Center and American Red Cross.
To participate in the program, interested donors were asked to register at www.nuvancehealth.org/plasmadonorregistration. Presently, the database has 2,182 registered donors. While Nuvance Health is no longer collecting plasma donations, the registry will remain open should the need arise.
Nuvance Health has been involved in the Mayo Clinic convalescent plasma research protocol for its hospitalized patients and is now starting participation with the Johns Hopkins protocol to treat non-hospitalized patients with convalescent plasma. This new study may necessitate re-opening one or more of the donation centers.
“We thank our community for their tremendous generosity in donating their own plasma to help others during these unprecedented times and making it possible for research like this to occur,” Chief Quality Officer Dr. Diane Kantaros said.