Red Cross

Dec. 3: Gov. J.B. Pritzker delivers daily coronavirus update for Illinois, urging residents to donate blood during the pandemic.

The Food and Drug Administration is reportedly nearing a decision to issue an emergency use authorization to use convalescent plasma for treating coronavirus patients. Unfortunately, the supply of plasma is running low.

The American Red Cross began testing all blood, platelet and plasma donations for COVID-19 antibodies on Monday. The new test could indicate if the donor’s immune system has previously produced antibodies to the coronavirus, whether or not the individual experienced symptoms. “As an organization dedicated to helping others, the Red Cross is pleased to provide more information about COVID-19...

Plasma is precious for people sick with COVID-19. The liquid portion of blood taken from survivors of the disease may be rich in antibodies that doctors hope can speed up recovery for the sickest patients.

The CEO of the Red Cross of Chicago, Illinois talks about the organization’s need for blood donations during the coronavirus pandemic.

The American Red Cross and blood banks across the nation are putting out an urgent call for donors amid the COVID-19 pandemic. As the virus spreads and events and businesses close, donations are dropping, dangerously in some areas.

A Worcester, Massachusetts, fire lieutenant died early Wednesday as he and his crew attempted to save a baby and others from a raging fire. Chief Michael Lavoie said in a press conference that Lt. Jason Menard, a father of three, succumbed to his injuries after his “heroic efforts” to save people in the four-alarm fire at 7 Stockholm Street.

The devastation wrought by Dorian — and the terror it inflicted during its day-and-a-half mauling of the Bahamas — came into focus Wednesday as the passing of the storm revealed a muddy, debris-strewn landscape of smashed and flooded-out homes on Abaco and Grand Bahama islands. The official death toll from the strongest hurricane on record ever to hit the country...

More than 100 people were left without a home after a fire destroyed an apartment building Saturday in far west suburban Sycamore.

More than 100 people were left without a home after a fire destroyed an apartment building Saturday in far west suburban Sycamore. NBC 5’s Regina Waldroup reports.

The desire to have a selfie as a souvenir from running with the bulls in Spain turned into a near-death experience an American lawyer says he’ll never forget.

New Zealand’s foreign minister confirmed Monday that a New Zealand nurse has been held captive by the Islamic State group in Syria for almost six years, information long kept secret for fear her life might be at risk. The status of nurse and midwife Louisa Akavi, now 62, is unknown, but her employer, the International Committee of the Red Cross,...

The group of white-haired folks — some pushing walkers, others using canes — arrive right on time at the gates of Laguna Woods Village, an upscale retirement community in the picturesque hills that frame this Southern California suburb a few miles from Disneyland.

More than 1,000 people were feared dead in Mozambique four days after a cyclone slammed into the country, submerging entire villages and leaving bodies floating in the floodwaters, the nation’s president said. “It is a real disaster of great proportions,” President Filipe Nyusi said. Cyclone Idai could prove to be the deadliest storm in generations to hit the impoverished southeast...

No injuries were reported in the blaze in Yonkers, but uncertainty surrounds those who lived in the building.

Over 13,000 homes in the path of the deadly Camp Fire have been burned to ashes and thousands of Northern California residents are left without a home to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Four American tourists and a Costa Rican guide were killed in a weekend rafting accident in the Central American country, authorities said Sunday.

Search teams pulled bodies from obliterated neighborhoods in the disaster-stricken Indonesian city of Palu on Saturday as more aid rolled in and the government said it was considering making devastated areas into mass graves. Indonesia’s disaster agency said the death toll from the powerful earthquake and tsunami climbed to 1,649, with at least 265 people still missing, though it said...