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A promising new therapy using blood from recovered coronavirus patients is now authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration.

Convalescent plasma, a type of passive immunity, offers a patient antibodies that are available immediately which the immune system can use to fight a virus. The Journal of the American Medical Association in March reported the dramatic improvement of five critically ill COVID-19 patients on ventilators in Shenzen, China, after receiving plasma treatments. Three were discharged eventually discharged while the others' condition stabilized.

Now you can help seriously ill COVID-19 patients. If you have recovered from the coronavirus and are at least 18 years old, and are in good health after a laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of infection, you're eligible to become a plasma donor.

To donate blood plasma, click here.