Red Cross seeking donors after hundreds of blood drives shut down

A Red Cross official Sunday urged healthy prospective blood donors to check the organization’s web site or call its toll-free number to find a donation center or a still-scheduled blood drive after hundreds were cancelled across the nation because of school-district shutdowns spurred by the novel coronavirus contagion.

Blood drives at high schools are especially productive, with an average of 60 to 100 donors from each event, said Red Cross senior accountant Diana C. Boyd in a telephone interview.

With the school district closures, about 600 Red Cross blood drives have been shut down nationwide as of

Sunday, a majority of those at high schools, she said. There was no further breakdown of the numbers available, but Boyd called it “unprecedented … we are trying to do everything possible to avoid a blood shortage.”

For Inland Southern California, LifeStream, a San Bernardino blood bank serving 80 Southern California hospitals, said Friday at least a dozen drives have been canceled and those could have provided more than 1,200 units of needed blood. That would have been enough to treat up to 3,000 patients, said Dr. Joe Chaffin, the company’s chief medical officer.

There are still some organized Red Cross blood drives sponsored by businesses and community organizations, and the organization’s blood donation centers remain open, Boyd said

Red Cross workers and volunteers are taking extra steps in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, Boyd said, such as checking prospective donor’s temperatures, and following additional protocols of sanitizing and protection, in addition to procedures already in place in the normal course of a blood donation.

A blood-bank shortage can lead not only to delayed surgeries, it can imperil procedures for a variety of patients, including those under treatment for cancer or mothers giving birth, as well as trauma patients, Boyd said.