CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Corpus Christi-Nueces Co. Public Health District Director of Public Health Annette Rodriguez said Friday that three local diagnosed COVID-19 patients are now recovering during the county's regular daily news conference.
The public health district will now see if antibodies the recovering patients have acquired will be useful in helping other sick patients fight off the virus.
"They can be taken out of quarantine," she said. "So that has been really exciting for us, and we're trying to do . . . convalescent plasma. Everybody is really willing to try to give their blood to help other critically ill COVID-19 (patients)."
Convalescent plasma uses material from blood of recovered patients which has acquired antibodies to the virus as they've recovered. The material is then injected into the ill patients in an attempt to transfer those antibodies over and kick-start the ill patient's recovery.
One of the reasons COVID-19 has become a global pandemic is because humans previously had no immunity to it, Rodriguez said in an interview with KRIS 6 News several weeks ago. The plasma acquired from patients who are recovering could provide the first shot at acquired immunity.
See more about local convalescent plasma efforts here.
Nueces county currently has 47 confirmed coronavirus cases.
Twenty-seven of the county's cases have been travel-related; four were transmitted person-to-person; and eight are being considered community-spread, while eight remain under investigation. No COVID-19 related deaths have been reported in Nueces County.
Twenty-four of the confirmed patients are women, while 23 are men, and most patients affected locally fall into the 40-49 age range with the 60-69 age range having the second-most patients.