In brief Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen has recovered from the coronavirus.

Larsen now urges those that have recovered from the virus to donate their blood.

The United States is now the worst affected country by published number of Covid-19 cases.

Ripple co-founder and former CEO Chris Larsen has made a full recovery from a coronavirus infection.

Larsen, who recently turned 60, announced his recovery to his 39,000 Twitter followers and urged them to "consider donating your blood to help with antibody transplants." He also took the opportunity to thank those operating on the frontlines, in this case, the nurses and doctors in the Covid-19 wards, and shared a picture of himself donating blood.

Anybody who successfully recovers from the coronavirus will produce antibodies that provide immunity against the virus. This means they help to destroy the virus or inactivate it if the body encounters it again. Hospitals around the world have begun extracting blood from immune donors and giving it to compatible recipients, helping high-risk patients overcome the virus faster.

After co-founding Ripple alongside Jed McCaleb in 2012, Chris Larsen served as the CEO of the technology company until 2016, before handing the role over to the then COO Brad Garlinghouse.

Larsen still remains involved with Ripple and currently serves as the executive chairman on Ripple’s board of directors, but he now spends much of his time on philanthropic efforts.

Since being first detected in the Wuhan province of China back in November 2018, the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) has now gone on to infect more than one million people worldwide. The death toll currently stands at just north of 54,000, making it the worst pandemic since the 2009 swine flu (H1N1) pandemic.

In the last week, the United States has gone on to establish itself as the worst affected country by published Covid-19 cases, and now has almost a quarter of the world's active coronavirus cases.