The emergency call for donors led to waves of volunteers braving public places to give blood in their communities. Reduced capacity has led to a glut of donors, sending some Red Cross appointments into late April.
Blood blanks have stressed the need to stretch donations into the future. Yet as the virus continues its deadly march, potential donors and blood bank staffers could be taken out of commission.
“Donors are calling us now, and we are scheduling appointments two to eight weeks away,” said Rick Axelrod, president and chief executive of Lifestream Blood Bank, which serves 80 hospitals in Southern California.
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Donation centers have transformed their spaces, ensuring that donor beds are six feet apart, metering appointments and cleaning donor stations more often — and more visibly — to quell concerns and protect donors and staffers, Sullivan said.
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Elective surgeries have dipped as hospitals conserve manpower, and the number of trauma patients has declined because people are driving less and having fewer workplace accidents, said Baruch Fertel, an emergency physician at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.
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