Blood donors respond to Blood Bank’s call for donations

The Blood Bank announced on Thursday the moving response of donors to its call for urgent donations, reversing the adverse climate that had formed in the initial days of the pandemic.

According to its announcement, from March 11 until today 4,266 donors showed up to donate with 3,693 blood units collected in total.

As a result, the Blood Bank said that there is now satisfactory blood supply to cover patients’ needs, but efforts continue.

“We want to express our warm thanks to our donors for their social contribution and their altruism,” it said.

“This is not the end of our efforts. On the contrary, it is the beginning of a very challenging period during which we need to be constantly on our feet, as we should not forget that blood is of vital importance to many of our fellow human beings,” it was added.

The Bank now aims to amass about 200 donors a day to establish an equilibrium between supply and patient requirements. To this aim, it will send text messages to selected donors on a daily basis to take over from the previous donors.

This controlled flow of donors will ensure adequacy in blood supply in the medium-term, will prevent crowding and will allow time to Blood Bank staff to implement in an absolute manner all procedures and safety measures stipulated due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The safety of donors, patients and our staff is our foremost priority,” the Bank said.

It reminded that donors, as per the Ministry of Health’s decree, should send an SMS to 8998 (option 1) for movement by exception, mentioning that blood donors are excepted from the once a day limit to movements (a relevant confirmation will be supplied at the blood centre proving their attendance for donation).

People who travelled abroad in the last 28 days, people with respiratory infection symptoms and people who came into contact with a confirmed or suspect Covid-19 case are temporarily excluded from blood donations.