Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral respiratory syndrome caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

This novel virus was discovered in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019, and as of September 6, 2020, confirmed cases have risen to more than 27,000,000 worldwide and more than 885,000 people have died.

Currently, no cure or standard treatment for COVID-19 exists.

We conducted a prospective single-arm open label phase II clinical trial assessing the safety and efficacy of convalescent plasma in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.

Patients who received convalescent plasma with adequate amount of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies early in the disease course (severe illness group) as compared to the patients that received convalescent plasma later in disease progression (critical illness group) had significantly lower hospital mortality 13% vs 55% (p < 0.02) and shorter mean hospital length of stay 15.4 vs 33 days (p < 0.01).

Of the 38 patients that received convalescent plasma, only one patient experienced a transient transfusion reaction.