Dutch donors join global effort on plasma treatment for coronavirus

A woman donates blood plasma, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at Sanquin blood bank in Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 19, 2020. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Medical researchers in the Netherlands have signed up 1,500 people who have recovered from the new coronavirus to donate blood as part of an international push to develop a treatment for the virus from their plasma.

Doctors are already using survivor plasma to treat coronavirus patients in a number of hospitals worldwide, but plasma supplies are limited because relatively few people have had the new virus and donated blood.