Due to the novel coronavirus, the New York Blood Center has canceled all mobile blood drives through April, including the “New Life, New Beginnings” spring blood drive campaign planned at Columbia. Many other universities, businesses, and religious institutions, have also canceled blood drives through the spring. As a result of this, blood banks like the New York Blood Center, the beneficiary of the blood drives held on campus at Columbia, are experiencing critical blood shortages.
Blood donations provide a reserve for the region, which is used to treat cancer patients, accident and trauma victims, newborn babies and their mothers, transplant recipients, surgery patients, chronically transfused patients suffering from sickle cell disease, and many more. U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams has encouraged blood donation as something that young, healthy people can do to help during the coronavirus pandemic. NYBC worked with FEMA to develop their safety protocols and strongly urges individuals who feel healthy and well to make an appointment at a donor center or blood drive to give blood, platelets and plasma.
To combat this shortage, the New York Blood Center is extending open hours at their donor centers and urgently asking that healthy donors make appointments to help replenish the region’s blood inventory at this critical time. There are 19 locations in New York and New Jersey, and donations are accepted via appointment only, in order to ensure that the centers are controlled, safe environments for donors.
Find a New York Blood Center location near you and schedule an appointment to donate.
