The American Red Cross Faces Urgent Need for Blood

ZANESVILLE, OH – The American Red Cross is in urgent need of blood donations. Due to the pandemic, many organizations who usually host blood drives are unable to.

January is usually a slow month for blood donations in a normal year. This year with the pandemic still heavily impacting the country, blood collection is even more rough.

“We are always in need of blood. It’s a 24/7, it never goes away, and people I think forget about that. That you know every single day, whether there’s a pandemic going on or not, there’s still surgeries that are happening, there’s still cancer patients that are being treated, and now we’ve added COVID patients to the list of people that are using our blood products. And so the need is endless and never ending,” Lori Gaitten, Senior Account Manager for the American Red Cross said.

Blood drives are taking extra precautions to keep everyone safe. Required masks, extra cleaning, and temperature checks are taking place. The American Red Cross especially encourages those who have recovered from the corona virus to donate.

“We especially want people who have fully recovered from COVID-19 to give blood. And that means they’ve been at least symptom free for 14 days. They have anti-bodies in their blood now that is very helpful in treating COVID patients… The plasma is actually is what is being used, and they call it convalescent plasma if there are anti-bodies present in treating those COVID patients that are really sick in the hospital.”

If you are interested in donating blood you can go online to the American Red Cross website http://www.redcrossblood.org. To find one nearest to your location you can type in your zip code and it will show you all blood drives within a 15 mile radius. You can also call 1-800-RED-CROSS for assistance finding a blood drive and to set up an appointment.