Members of Shincheonji Church of Jesus donate convalescent plasma at a Red Cross donation station in Daegu, South Korea.

A third plasma donation drive has been underway in the South Korean city of Daegu, with 4000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus taking part.

Online PR News – 27-November-2020 – Daegu, South Korea – In the current fight against COVID-19, since the 16th of November a third plasma donation drive has been underway in the South Korean city of Daegu, with 4,000 members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus taking part.

With no vaccine or proven cure readily available to stop the virus, scientists and healthcare workers have been working around the clock in the race to curb COVID-19. However, in certain countries such as South Korea, blood plasma treatment has yielded great success. The Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) has stated, “It is necessary to quickly develop plasma treatment through group plasma donations, in the current absence of an effective treatment in the midst of the continuous occurrence of COVID-19 at home and abroad.”

The KDCA has made a formal request to the Shincheonji Church, which had thousands of members suffer from COVID-19 and make a recovery, to participate in donating convalescent plasma. The chairman of the church, Mr. Man Hee Lee, stated that the church would conduct its third group plasma donation drive starting November 16th. 4000 church members have since volunteered to participate in this blood drive which is still ongoing today in the city of Daegu.

Deputy Director Kwon Joon-wook from the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters in South Korea recently announced, “For the purpose of developing plasma treatment, about 4,000 Shincheonji members plan to participate in plasma donations for three weeks, starting on the 16th. We are grateful for the active participation of Shincheonji, and for the cooperation of the City of Daegu and the Korean Red Cross.”

The church has already participated in two group plasma donation drives in July and September this year. A total of 2,030 people had participated in the plasma donation drives, with around 1,700 being members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. Moreover, just as for the first and second plasma donation drives, the donors from Shincheonji Church have declined receiving travel expense compensation for the third drive in order to lessen the burden on taxpayers.

A member of the church affirmed, “I was glad and grateful to hear the news that plasma treatment is being used at the point-of-care. It’s the most valuable thing we can do as people who have recovered from COVID-19.” He also added, “Through our experience of participating in plasma donation, all the members of our congregation have realised that the power to overcome COVID-19 is tolerance, love, and unity. We will put in our utmost effort to overcome COVID-19 through plasma treatment.”