The Oklahoma Blood Institute is urging potential donors to give immediately with blood supplies down to an emergency low level.
Donations haven’t fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels, and OBI is now seeing its typical summer lull in donations ahead of a holiday weekend where an increase in trauma cases could cause blood demand to spike.
Executive Director Jan Laub said there’s a one-day supply available right now, and sometimes it’s less than that.
"We like to have three to four days' worth of supply on the shelf for hospitals when they call, because if there's a mass casualty, there's a mass accident ... the blood on the shelf is what hospitals reach for. And that has to be there," Laub said.
OBI is also still fighting misinformation that people vaccinated against COVID-19 cannot donate blood.
"That has never been the case. So, I don't know who started that rumor, but if you've been vaccinated or if you have not been vaccinated, you can still donate. If you are feeling well and ... you're healthy and pass all the medical questions that we have, you can donate," Laub said.
COVID-19 vaccination is not required to donate.
All blood types are needed, especially O negative. Donors can find blood drives and other locations to donate blood at OBI.org.
The image in this story by Wikipedia user Vegasjon is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
