COVID-19 lockdown: IRCS facing challenges to collect blood units through voluntary donations

The Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS) is facing problems in collecting blood units through voluntary donations, Dr Vanshree Singh, Director of IRCS' Blood Bank, said on Tuesday, amid the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.

"Before the lockdown, a lot of (blood donation) camps which were in line at that time after March 10 were cancelled. We started asking people to come here and donate... After lockdown, the situation started becoming more worse because people now are in fear of COVID-19," Dr Singh told .

"The collection is not at the level which we were expecting. At present, we are collecting near about 60 to 70 units," she said.

Dr Singh informed that 2,500 to 3,000 units of blood were collected in a month on an average and daily collection was near about 80 to 100 units.

She said that thalassaemic, cancer, dialysis, anemia patients and pregnant mothers need blood and may suffer due to the shortage.

In the last few days, IRCS has cancelled several blood donations camps as scheduled areas were declared as hotspots.

The IRCS official also said that a COVID-19 negative person can also donate blood, but only after one month of his or her complete recovery by following government's guidelines under medical supervision.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on March 24 announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown as a precautionary measure to contain the spread of COVID-19. The lockdown was later extended till May 3.

( With inputs from ANI )