COVID changed donation rules for a while; they have settled into something simple. Recovered and 14 days past your symptoms? You can donate.
After infection
- Mild COVID (home care): wait 14 days from full recovery — no symptoms, no oxygen need
- Hospitalised or severe: wait longer, and bring a doctor’s clearance; your recovery, not the virus, is the deciding factor
- Long COVID: assessed case by case — if you are functional and well, most centres accept you
After the vaccine
Standard practice across Indian centres is a 14-day wait after each dose (Covishield, Covaxin, boosters — all the same rule), provided you have no fever or reaction on donation day. A sore arm alone does not defer you; fever does, until it clears.
What COVID never changed
The rest intervals, the haemoglobin gate, the weight floor — all identical. The virus added one line to the screening form; it did not rewrite the rules. And plasma from recovered patients, once a big story, is now ordinary blood — both are welcome.
The plain summary
Symptoms gone 14 days, or vaccine dose 14 days back, feeling well today: the chair is waiting for you.