AS MORE GET VACCINATED FOR COVID-19, FEWER GIVE BLOOD

SEOUL— From Seoul to Paris, and Moscow to Bangkok, concerned citizens are lining up for vaccine shots as COVID-19 case numbers swell. That may ease pressure on stretched hospitals around the world, but with it comes a hangover—a severe shortage of blood donors.

A number of countries don’t allow people who have just been vaccinated to give blood, as well as banning those in recovery from coronavirus. With others simply staying home as new infections rise, doctors say donor pools have shrunk to alarmingly low levels, menacing urgent operations.

In South Korea, now grappling with record cases, donors can’t give blood for seven days after a COVID-19 vaccine shot—and supply is down to just 3.2 days, as of Wednesday, from 6.5 days’ worth this time last year, according to the Korean Red Cross.

The Korean Medical Association has launched a blood drive, starting with doctors, warning that patients in need of urgent surgery or transfusions could face emergency situations, spokesperson Park Soo-hyun told Reuters.

Surgeries postponed

“There have been increasing times when hospitals notify us of postponement of surgeries or treatments and crowding due to lack of blood,” Park said.

Recurrent waves of infections and extension of lockdowns have started taking a bigger toll on donations.

In Thailand, confirmed cases topped 1 million on Friday with record increases in deaths in recent weeks.

“Due to the COVID situation, not many people are donating blood so there is not enough and some surgeries have to be postponed,” said Piya Kiatisewi, a Bangkok surgeon.

Russia prohibits blood donations from the fully vaccinated for a whole month. It also doesn’t accept blood from those in the middle of COVID-19 vaccination cycle.

Donation slump

The Kommersant business daily reported last week that donor activity in Russia has slumped, hit by the vaccination campaign.

In the United States, supplies of donated blood—already strained by the pandemic—tightened further in the spring as hospitals ramped up surgeries that had been on hold, according to Dr. Claudia

Cohn, chief medical officer at the blood banks association.

People receiving authorized vaccines do not have to wait before donating blood, but individuals given a different type of vaccine, possibly in another country, need to wait 14 days.

France’s blood supply agency, the Etablissement Francais du Sang, said stocks were too tight for comfort. It said there are 85,000 red blood cell bags in reserve, below a comfortable level of 100,000 or more.

In Greece, “People are afraid to go and donate blood to hospitals because of the coronavirus,” said Konstantinos Stamoulis, scientific director of Hellenic National Blood Center in Athens.

Vietnam’s National Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion said it could meet only 50 to 70 percent of demand.