With many blood drives canceled because of COVID-19, donating through appointments is critical

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Donating blood is always important to make sure hospitals have enough for patients in need of transfusions. While the world is in a state of disarray, that need becomes even more important.

"Blood is a perishable resource," said Ben Williamson, the Red Cross public affairs officer for the Palmetto South Carolina region. "It's not like money in a bank. We can't put blood in a bank somewhere, put it in a big storage room and keep it for months. It has a shelf life. The only way we get that blood is through donors."

One of the biggest concerns people have about giving blood at the moment is just the ability to stay healthy.

"We're already a very safe process before this, but we've put in some extra standards and safety to make sure that you're safe," Williamson said. "That's anything from having people outside all of our fixed blood donation sites that are checking the temperatures of all the staff, donors and volunteers before they even enter the drive. We're providing hand sanitizer before, during and after that donation process."

The Red Cross is also forced to see fewer people than normal to maintain appropriate social distance and to make sure it has ample time to clean in between patients.

"We're obviously staggering the appointments and making sure that we're following those social distancing guidelines. We may not see as many people at once as we used to because we're making sure we can space the beds out and fall in line with those social distancing guidelines," Williamson said. "We're doing deep cleans every evening and every night, and then every time someone gives, we're routinely disinfecting the surfaces before and after the donor gives. Our folks (last) week started wearing masks. Before that, they were wearing gloves, changing those gloves and being screened before they ever came in."

One of the other major concerns is making sure the blood is safe to use during the pandemic, but Williamson said the Red Cross has systems in place to make sure the blood is safe to use. On top of those safety measures, there have been no cases of COVID-19 being transmitted through a blood transfusion in the world so far.

"You're always screened before you give by asking how you're feeling and if you're healthy, and that's whether we're in this outbreak or not. With COVID, there are steps in place for if someone was healthy and they were to give and a few days later they become symptomatic or they are diagnosed with this virus," Williamson said. "Every blood donation is tracked, and that blood is then isolated and not used for transfusions and taken out of the system."

"On top of that, there are no reported cases in the entire world of this virus, COVID-19, or any other respiratory issues being transmitted through transfusions. There's not been one reported case of that happening, and the U.S. Surgeon General has said that, the CDC has said that. I think people can rest assured that there's no cases that this can be transferred through blood," Williamson said.

With safety measures in place, the next step is finding people to donate. Unfortunately for the Red Cross, many blood drives across the state have been canceled.

"The biggest challenge for us because of this over the past month is the cancellation of blood drives," Williamson said. "A lot of our blood drives are held at college campuses, at high schools, at elementary schools, at government buildings, at peoples' businesses. Well, a lot of those have been canceled. Everyone has gone remote. A lot of those government buildings have closed, so a lot of drives have been canceled.

"To date, we've had over 200 drives in South Carolina be canceled. That equates to roughly over 6,200 units of blood. That's a lot of blood that has gone uncollected. That's one of our biggest challenges."

Without blood drives, the Red Cross is asking people to go to www.redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-RED-CROSS to find your nearest donation location and schedule an appointment.

Luckily, people have started scheduling those appointments. A few weeks ago, the Red Cross was struggling to find enough blood to meet the immediate need. Enough blood has been donated to meet that immediate need now, but people need to keep donating to make sure that continues.

"I will say that we are in a much better spot now than we were last week or two weeks ago," Williamson said. "There have been so many people across South Carolina and in this community that have chosen to come out to give blood or to schedule upcoming appointments, and, because of that, we've been able to meet the immediate patient needs ... Drives have already been canceled for April, May and June, so this is going to be an ongoing need."

"This is a marathon, not a sprint. We're going to need folks to continue to make those appointments and continue to give blood during this time. We don't know when the end of this is going to be. We don't have an end date, so we're just trying to stress that this fight against the coronavirus is ongoing, and we're really going to need a sufficient blood supply on the shelves for the weeks and months to come."