Blood donor screening policy regarding to the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme

Taking reference to the practice of blood services worldwide on blood donor screening policy regarding to the COVID-19 vaccination, the Hospital Authority (BTS) Expert Panel on Blood and Blood Products Safety has updated the blood donor screening policy as follow:

Prospective donor who has received one of the following COVID-19 vaccines should be deferred from blood donation for 7 days:

• Inactivated virus technology platform, e.g. CoronaVac by Sinovac Biotech (Hong Kong) Limited
• mRNA technology platform, e.g. Comirnaty by Fosun Pharma in collaboration with the German drug manufacturer BioNTech (BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine)
• Non-replicating viral vector technology platform, e.g. COVID-19 vaccine by AstraZeneca, in collaboration with the University of Oxford

Meanwhile,

• prospective donor who experienced localized side effects (i.e. pain or redness at the injection site) after vaccination should be deferred until side effects have completely resolved;
• prospective donor who experienced other post vaccination side effects such as fever, muscle ache, joint pain and rash, etc should be deferred for 14 days after side effects have resolved.

The spokesperson said that the expert panel would study closely the latest data and review types of vaccines provided under the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme, and enact timely reviews of related measures.