LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced the state’s groundbreaking initiative to test for coronavirus immunity and establish the country’s top plasma donor pool. The Co-Immunity Project is a collaboration among the state, the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council and the University of Louisville Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute.
“The purpose is to help its healthcare workers understand whether they were unknowingly exposed to COVID-19, to determine how much immunity was generated by such exposure, and to identify those with the best immune responses as donors of high-quality plasma for rescue treatment of patients with advanced COVID-19,” read a statement from the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council.
The project will focus on testing for antibodies and possible immunity, as well as developing donor plasma resources. The project will start by testing frontline healthcare workers and will eventually scale up to test other essential workers.
The initiative will be launched with three large hospital systems in Kentucky – Baptist Health, Norton Healthcare and UofL Health.
“This model for testing is exciting and it is our hope that antibody measurements can be used to predict immunity,” said Gov. Andy Beshear. “If so, it will be a critical tool in the reopening of Kentucky’s economy.”
To learn more about the Co-Immunity Project, click here.
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