BUCHAREST, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The General Council of Bucharest, capital of Romania, adopted on Thursday the "Donate Plasma, Save Life" program, which aims to encourage COVID-19 plasma donors by offering a package of vouchers.
"Financial incentive (is) in the amount of 1,000 euros (1,177 U.S. dollars), in the form of meal and/or gift vouchers, with which donors can purchase medicines, food or other necessary products to restore physical condition," Bucharest Mayor Gabriela Firea wrote on her social media account.
It is necessary to convince as many cured patients as possible to become the saviors of those who suffer, stressed Firea. The capital city so far has the most COVID-19 infection cases both daily and in total, with 172 and 7,951 respectively on Thursday.
She noted that donation legislation does not normally provide financial incentives, but the COVID-19 pandemic is an exceptional situation.
"We need an exception to the law, in order to save as many lives as possible," said the mayor, revealing that the number of donations so far is less than 400, out of over 30,000 recovered people.
Romania started the blood plasma collection campaign from recovered COVID-19 patients at the end of April, after plasma treatment for COVID-19 has been used in clinical trials in China, the United States and several European countries.
Nationwide, 1,454 new cases and 53 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours, both setting the new records since the outbreak. To date, Romania has registered a total of 66,631 cases and 2,860 deaths, while 31,547 people have recovered. Enditem
