LANSING, Mich. — The American Red Cross is worried about losing volunteers and blood donations because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
"We're already impacted this time of year with cold and flu season and to add coronavirus on top of that the number of eligible donors goes down," Kelly King, Executive Director of Mid-Michigan Red Cross said.
The mid-Michigan chapter of the red cross has been getting calls from organizations canceling desperately needed blood drives. The organization's executive director says she receives at least one an hour.
"Currently we don't have a blood shortage, but we are seeing drives canceled due to schools closing, especially Michigan State University. They host several drives for us and now with them going to virtual classes. So, we're seeing a lot of that across Michigan and the effects that's having," King said.
King says local businesses that would typically host blood drives are canceling them as well. The red cross location in Lansing is still open and the staff is doing extra cleaning and screening.
"There are additional questions that are asked on the health screen about travel and we're asking folks who have traveled to specific locations to defer donating blood for at least 28 days after the travel," King said.
That includes places like Italy, Iran, China, and South Korea.
King says while there's no data to show they should be concerned about coronavirus in blood donations, they're still taking it seriously.
"There is no data or evidence that the virus can be transmitted through blood transfusion, nor has that occurred, but it's just an additional safety step that we're taking to ensure the blood supply," King said.
The American Red Cross says they have canceled 49 blood drives as of today, resulting in more than 1500 units of blood lost.
They're currently asking healthy people to continue to donate blood and plasma to prevent a shortage.
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