The Red Cross is out for blood.
The Red Cross said Tuesday that the organization, which provides about 40% of the country’s blood, was facing a “severe blood shortage” because of the strict “social distancing” policies being implemented during the coronavirus pandemic. Many donor drives have been canceled in recent days.
“In really good times, we may have five days of inventory available for our hospital clients, and now, we’re running at a day or day-and-a-half, in some cases,” Chris Hrouda, president of Biomedical Services for the Red Cross, told NPR.
Red Cross estimates that it has been shorted about 86,000 donations because of the cancellation of about 2,700 blood drives, many of which are held on college campuses, workplaces, and at community gathering spots.
In response, officials are encouraging people to go out of their way to donate blood where they can. Peter Marks, director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, noted that donation facilities work to keep donors healthy.
“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,” Marks said.
Hrouda warned the Red Cross is now shipping out less blood than it is bringing in, which has resulted in hospitals receiving lower amounts of blood than requested.
“As of this week, we’ve started shorting all our hospital customers to 75% of what they’ve requested, and we’ll evaluate pretty quickly if we need to take that down to 50%,” Hrouda said.
In the United States, there have been 6,233 cases of the coronavirus, 17 recoveries, and 105 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
