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Blood bank officials say the blood shortage during pandemic remains

By Vegasjon, via Wikimedia Commons

Blood donations around the country and in Delaware have been scare since the start of the pandemic. 

First State hospitals and the Blood Bank of Delmarva are making another plea for blood, but they warn this isn’t the usual temporary shortage. 

Though scarcities are common this time of year, officials say blood donations have been reduced by more than half consistently since the start of the pandemic. 

“We need people to think about this long-term, rather than just issue a plea and say ‘hey the blood supply dropped again, can you help us out?’” said Blood Bank spokesman Tony Prado. “That always gets results, there’s no doubt about it. Delmarva folks are wonderful; they tend to respond. But we ask people to think long-term about it.”   

Prado says the cancellation of blood drives has made it difficult to keep the supply up. He encourages healthy people to make the trip to a blood bank location to donate there instead. 

“Look it’s not as convenient as your local blood drive, maybe it was at work where you could walk down the hall and roll up your sleeve, or maybe it was your school where you were a teacher or principal.”   

The Delmarva peninsula’s 19 hospitals require about 350 blood donations per day. 

Prado says about 40 percent typically comes from blood drives—the majority of that amount coming from high school and college drives which have been mostly cancelled due to COVID.

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