Blood donation incident explained

July 13, 2020

Hospital Authority Chief Manager (Quality & Standards) Dr Lau Ka-hin:

According to past experiences with severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, the chance of getting infected by the infected blood is very low. But we have limited experience for this COVID-19 virus. According to a recent publication in South Korea, they traced the recipients of the infected blood. There was no recipient who was infected by the COVID-19 infected blood. So the conclusion by our experts is that the chance is very, very low.

We know that there is a chance that people who donated blood could be confirmed to have COVID-19 after the donation, but we must balance the risks and the benefits because nowadays we still have some patients who need blood in our hospitals. 

Blood donations centres have already set up very stringent rules for screening people who are going to donate blood, including donors who were not in Hong Kong, had contact with confirmed cases as well as have the symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections and fever. They will not be allowed to donate blood during the symptomatic period as well as within 28 days of travelling outside Hong Kong as well as contacting confirmed cases.

(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The chance of contracting COVID-19 from infected blood is very low, the Hospital Authority said today in response to an incident where a person confirmed to have the virus donated blood last week.

The authority’s Chief Manager (Quality & Standards) Dr Lau Ka-hin made the statement during a press briefing this afternoon.

Some of the donated blood was used on a patient at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. That patient is in isolation and will be tested for COVID-19.

Dr Lau said that according to past experiences with severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, the chance of getting infected by infected blood is very low.

However, he said there is a limited experience for COVID-19.

“According to a recent publication in South Korea, they traced the recipients of the infected blood. There was no recipient who was infected by the COVID-19 infected blood.

“So the conclusion by our experts is that the chance is very, very low.”

Meanwhile, Dr Lau pointed out that blood donation centres have stringent rules for screening people who are going to donate blood, including those who were not in Hong Kong, had contact with confirmed cases as well as people with upper respiratory tract infection symptoms and fever.