The corona pandemic has led to a significant drop in blood donations. Blood donation services are looking forward to the summer holidays with concern and are sounding the alarm on World Blood Donor Day.
Ratingen/Bonn (dpa/lnw) – Before World Blood Donation Day this Tuesday, the German Red Cross (DRK) complained about an acute shortage of blood donations. “The situation is really dramatic,” said the spokesman for the DRK blood donation service West, Stephan David Küpper. “Our stocks are only just above what we actually need per day.”
It is particularly critical for the blood groups “0 negative” and “A positive”. Here the DRK had to cut the supply of the clinics by half. But even with the other blood groups, the red line was almost crossed. According to the DRK, it covers 75 percent of the blood requirements of hospitals in North Rhine-Westphalia.
It is unusual for such a bottleneck to occur before the summer holidays, when the willingness to donate blood is traditionally low. Küpper sees one reason in the easing of the corona measures: “People are very mobile at the moment and have something else on their minds than donating blood.” In addition, many of the regular donation dates in companies that were canceled due to the pandemic have not yet started again in the usual form.
“The corona pandemic has led to additional nationwide bottlenecks, especially outside of the well-known difficult care during vacation times,” said Johannes Oldenburg, head of the blood donation service at the Bonn University Hospital. A sufficient supply of blood is not only vital for acute emergencies, but also for the treatment of premature babies and cancer patients. Oldenburg thanked all donors for their commitment: “Blood donation is solidarity in action.”
