Community Labs, a new nonprofit organization, has launched an innovative laboratory in San Antonio, changing how traditional COVID-19 testing is currently conducted by advances in speed, capacity, accuracy and price, along with a less invasive testing process. Inspired by the work of Scientists to Stop COVID-19 and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Community Labs will start with a capacity of 600 tests a day, scale to 12,000 tests a day, and have the potential to scale significantly in the near future. 

The Food and Drug Administration has changed the status of COVID-19 convalescent plasma therapy from a clinical trial to an Emergency Use Authorization.

The change should provide faster and easier access to the therapy by waiving some regulatory requirements before hospitalized patients with COVID-19 can receive transfusions of convalescent plasma.

Convalescent plasma is donated by those who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection and still have antibodies to COVID-19 in their blood. It is transfused to current patients, possibly providing passive immunity via anti-COVID antibodies.

The South Texas Blood & Tissue Center is the only organization in San Antonio collecting convalescent plasma donations and distributing them to local and area hospitals. The community blood center began collections as part of a clinical trial being conducted by the Mayo Clinic.