The Blood Bank of Delmarva is calling for donations as its supply of crucial blood types dipped after the holiday weekend.
It announced a blood emergency in early May citing low levels of much needed blood types since the pandemic began.
Now after the Memorial Day weekend, Communication Specialist Tony Prado said the bank has only a five-day supply.
More worryingly, he says, the bank has less than a single day supply of O-negative, the universal donor blood type.
“That’s at 0.7 days. That is not good. B-negative is another one of our core four blood types that is often used at the hospitals. It has lots of versatility. It’s at 1.5 days. So those are the ones that we’re concerned about specifically.”
Prado said at the start of summer donors are often busier with family and travel.
“People are busy. Their kids are finishing up school. They’ve got a lot of events to go to, graduations, they’re planning trips to Rehoboth Beach and whatnot.”
The Blood Bank is offering incentives like gift cards and partnerships with local breweries to try and draw more donors in as the summer goes on.
Even though its donor base sits at around 40,000, Prado said the blood bank has lost around 5,000 unique donors since the start of the pandemic.
