Blood donations needed amid coronavirus pandemic

Community blood drive. Bag filled with a donors blood (Photo by Getty Images)

One blood donation can save three lives, but blood donations are down nationwide due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams and blood donation centers are urging people to give blood. "I want Americans to know blood donation is safe and centers are taking extra precautions based on new CDC recommendations,” said Adams.

Susan Forbes, OneBlood’s senior vice president for corporate communications and public relations, said the amount of blood drives that have been canceled is significant and unprecedented. 

“We have never experienced anything like this before,” Forbes explained. “The reason they are canceling like that is because businesses and schools are shut down and if those locations close that limits our ability to where we can take the Big Red Bus for blood drives because that's where we go for blood drives so now we're asking people to visit our donor centers or find the other locations for where the big red bus is and come in and donate".

Forbes added that OneBlood is implementing social distancing practices at blood drives.

"Only a certain number of people will be permitted on the big red bus at any one time and donors will be asked to provide their cell phone numbers so if we have a lot of people at one time they can wait outside the bus or in their cars and we'll call them when it's their turn to come onto the bus,” Forbes explained. “The same thing is happening at our donor centers, but we have a little more room at the donor centers to space people out for social distance.”

For information on where to donate, visit https://www.oneblood.org/
 

If you feel sick:

The Florida Department of Health has opened a COVID-19 Call Center at 1-866-779-6121. Agents will answer questions around the clock. Questions may also be emailed to covid-19@flhealth.gov. Email responses will be sent during call center hours.

LINK: Florida's COVID-19 website

CORONAVIRUS IN FLORIDA: What you need to know

AROUND THE WORLD: CoronavirusNOW.com

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