Count the nation's blood supply among the victims of the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Blood donations have dropped significantly in recent days as people avoid public spaces to try to avoid exposure to COVID-19 and colleges, schools and businesses curtail operations, officials say
Donation drives at colleges and schools typically are an important source of blood this time of year, but many have been canceled, said Martha Osborne, vice president of marketing for the Kentucky Blood Center.
Osborne said 45% of the blood drives initially scheduled this month throughout the state have been canceled, and walk-in visits to donation centers are down.
Nationally, about 4,000 blood drives have been canceled, taking 130,000 pints of blood out of the supply that would normally have been available, said Kate Fry, chief executive officer of America's Blood Centers.
Members of that network, including the Kentucky Blood Center, collect about 60% of the blood supply in the U.S.
The American Red Cross collects most of the rest of the total. That figure on 4,000 canceled donation drives includes both Red Cross and America's Blood Centers, Fry said.
"This is truly an unprecedented scenario for the U.S. blood supply," she added.
The situation could get worse if donations continue to lag.
In states where colleges have shut down classes and other gatherings, the situation may become dire. Kentucky Blood Center staffers were scheduled to be at the University of Kentucky beginning March 28 for a weeklong drive, but with UK switching to online classes for the rest of the semester, the center will miss out on 300 to 400 pints of blood it anticipated receiving.
The center has less than a two-day supply of blood ready to ship to the 70 hospitals it serves across Kentucky, though hospitals also have some on hand, Osborne said.
The center's inventory of O-positive and O-negative blood is even tighter _ barely one day's worth, Osborne said.
That's a concern because O-negative can be given to people with other blood types, and O-positive is the most common type, so the two are the most-used in treatments.
The blood center prefers to stock a three to five-day supply of blood.
"We're getting very, very challenged," Osborne said.
The situation is compounded in some states like Kentucky where more blood is used in surgeries and medical treatments, including cancer treatment, than in-state donors provide.
"Going forward, we're going to be struggling," Osborne said. "Traumas will continue. It is imperative that healthy individuals continue to donate blood as soon as they can and as often as they can."
Fry emphasized that people don't increase their risk of contracting the coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, by giving blood.
Donors can schedule a visit to a blood center at a time when there aren't a lot of other people there if they're concerned, and can complete the health questionnaire online to cut the time spent at a center and help staffers plan.
The blood center also is encouraging businesses, churches and others to schedule drives.
