The American Red Cross is warning of severe blood shortages across the country as thousands of blood drives have been canceled over fear of worsening the coronavirus spread.
The Red Cross, which supplies about 40 percent of the nation’s blood, urged people to donate, assuring the public that it is still safe despite social-distancing rules.
The organization said it has implemented new measures to make sure donating blood is safe amid the coronavirus pandemic. It's checking the temperature of both staff and donors before they enter a blood drive location; providing hand sanitizer and spacing beds in accordance with social-distancing guidelines. It's also making sure surfaces and equipment are disinfected regularly.
The Red Cross said donor drives across the country have been canceled at an “alarming rate” and that it faces “severe blood shortages.”
As of March 17, 2,700 blood drives had been canceled because of concerns about large numbers of people gathering in public. The Red Cross estimated those concerns have caused about 86,000 fewer people to make blood donations.
Chris Hrouda, president of biomedical services for the Red Cross, told NPR the organization is shipping out more blood than it’s bringing in, so it’s begun only shipping 75 percent of orders to hospitals. It may have to lower that to 50 percent in the near future, he added.
In normal times, the Red Cross has about five days of inventory for its hospital clients. Right now, it has about a day or day and a half, according to NPR.
The University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor has about one day of blood left, according to Bridge Magazine.
“I’m very worried about what we are going to be facing over the next few weeks,” Robertson Davenport, MD, head of transfusion medicine at the hospital told Bridge Magazine.
The FDA is calling on people to come out and donate.
"Blood donation centers are a very safe place to be. People take precautions to make sure those centers are spotless clean and that people who are sick don't enter them," Peter Marks, MD, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told NPR.