Mar 19, 2020 3 min read

Blood donations already had been tailing off before measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 started to present new challenges.

“We’re already losing the battle, unfortunately,” said Kristen Lane, marketing lead for Vitalant, Tuesday. “The situation we’re experiencing right now is the state-mandated closures of schools and so many businesses.”

Formerly known regionally as Central Blood Bank, Vitalant regularly conducts drives through various agencies to collect blood and blood products for use at hospitals.

“About 20% of our collection comes from high schools and colleges. So we’ve already lost about 20% of anticipated collection,” Lane said. “Businesses have asked their employees either to work at home or they’ve closed for a couple of weeks. So we’re losing that.”

Vitalant is contracted with Allegheny Health Network and UPMC to supply blood and blood products, which by extension go to the likes of Washington Hospital, Canonsburg Hospital and WHS-Greene.

Lane provided an example of the COVID-19 impact.

“We know that we have 10 blood drives sign up for next week, and some of those blood drives are at large organizations where we’ve worked with them before and we know, based on history, that we’re going to collect a certain amount. We can project that pretty accurately,” she said.

“So then we go to our hospitals that we’ve contracted with and say, ‘OK, Washington Hospital. I know you anticipate needing “X” number of units of blood next week. We will be able to provide that to you based on our collection projections,'” Lane continued. “What’s happened now is that the plug has been pulled, and we have to scramble to find blood outside of the community. We have to import it at a cost.”

She said Vitalant received inquiries about blood donations in lieu of drives and the availability of the organization’s mobile unit. As a result, Vitalant’s 10 regional brick-and-mortar donation centers have extended hours.

The South Hills locations are in the Manor Building, 4701 Baptist Road, Whitehall, and Five Parkway Center, 875 Greentree Road, Green Tree. Hours are from 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 18-19, 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. March 20-22; 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. March 23-26; and 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. March 27.

Other centers are in Pittsburgh, McCandless, Monroeville, Moon and Harmar townships, and Butler and Westmoreland counties.

“Giving blood has absolutely no impact on a donor’s immune system,” Lane said, “and due to the nature of the coronavirus, it is highly unlikely that it can be transmitted through blood transfusions, because it’s a respiratory virus.”

Vitalant follows “follow all the rigorous safety and disinfection protocols” as directed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration,” she said, with staff members required to wear protective personal equipment while taking blood.

“Every donor gets brand-new, sterile gloves with their donor care staff,” Lane reported. “All of the supplies we use are single-use. Nothing is reused. After each blood donation has concluded, the donor staff cleans and disinfects the donor bed, the surrounding areas, anything that was a touch area at all.”

Donors are requested to be healthy when giving blood.

“We don’t want to put you at risk of not feeling your best when you already don’t feel your best,” she said.

For more information, visit www.vitalant.org.