Illinois Coalition of Community Blood Centers seeking blood donations as the statewide supply of blood is at “critically low”

Posted on June 23, 2020
Kavitha Gadiraju gives a whole blood donation. (Photo courtesy: WJBC/File)

By Blake Haas

BLOOMINGTON – State officials from the Illinois Coalition of Community Blood Centers (ICCBC) is seeking blood donations as Illinois Blood Centers are running on a two-day or less supply of blood, putting them at a “critically low” level.

“Since COVID restrictions were lifted for elective procedures and patients returned to mass for medical treatments, surgeries have spiked, and blood centers across the state are struggling to keep up with the demand for blood,” Emily Alanis, Regional Manager for Donor Recruitment for the Versiti Blood Center of Illinois said in a news release. “(This is) making the situation worse is nearly 60% of the collections blood centers rely on coming from offsite blood drives, many of which are not being held due to many sites being closed.”

Blood only has a 42-day shelf-life and needs to be continuously replenished.

“It is important for civic groups, churches and organizations that ordinarily host blood drives to understand that they can resume holding mobile drives because blood collection ios considered an ‘essential service’ and does not fall under ten-person gathering limits.

Illinois will enter Phase 4 of Gov. Pritzker’s Restore Illinois plan on Friday, where gatherings extend to 50-people or fewer.

Blake Haas can be reached at [email protected].

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