Portland-area Red Cross dealing with blood donation shortage
By FOX 12 STAFF
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PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) — The Red Cross has an urgent plea. If you can donate blood please either sign up or host a blood drive because there is a critical need for donations.
The organization tells us this is the worst prolonged blood donation shortage here locally in a very long time.
There’s a couple of reasons, the Red Cross says in the pandemic its biggest sponsorships, high schools, colleges, and universities stopped hosting blood drive drives. Companies started working remotely which also contributed to a significant drop in donations.
The Red Cross also says donations are typically slower in the summer and elective surgeries that were put off were rescheduled and now there’s more blood being used for those as well.
The organization recognizes there may be concerns about donating or hosting a drive during the pandemic, but it says it takes health and safety very seriously with extra cleaning after every donation and looking for large spaces to hold blood drives.
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