On Jun. 1, 2021, a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and their colleagues found that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, does not appear to pose a threat to the safety of the nationﾒs blood supply.

The analysis, published in Transfusion, supported current donor screening guidelines, including those used by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, that do not require testing blood samples for the SARS-CoV-2 virus but do require that donors be screened for physical symptoms of COVID-19 and for infections that occurred within 14 days of the blood donation. The blood of donors with recent COVID-19 infections, or who develop infections after recent donations, cannot be used.