Egypt's health minister has called on those who have recovered from coronavirus to head to the nearest ministry-affiliated blood transfusion centre to donate plasma to contribute to the treatment of critical coronavirus cases, stressing that they should do so only after 14 days have passed since the date of their recovery.

According to a statement on Saturday, successful experiments have been conducted involving the transfusion of blood from recovered patients to 30 people infected with the coronavirus. The ministry said blood from the recovered patients contains antibodies that can help fight the respiratory virus.

The minister's remarks came during an inspection tour on Saturday to a number of hospitals as part of monitoring the progress of work and the receiving of suspected coronavirus cases.

The ministry introduced the plasma therapy trials in Egypt for the first time on 30 April.

"The plasma therapy trials can be an effective treatment for patients who are severely ill with the disease and their results are promising so far," Zayed said earlier in May.

In April, the US Food and Drug Administration said the convalescent plasma has the potential to lessen the severity or shorten the length of illness caused by COVID-19.

On Saturday, the health ministryannounced1,367 new coronavirus infections,the highest single-day increase announced to date, bringing the country’s total number of confirmed cases to 23,449 since the detection of the first case on 14 February.

https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/370174.aspx