Oklahoma Blood Institute will provide all donors 18 and older with free COVID-19 antibody tests.
Testing will be offered at donor centers and mobile blood drives. OBI President and CEO Dr. John Armitage said donations were down about 20% at worst during the pandemic, but surgeries and other procedures being on hold at the same time offset the drop.
Now that those are picking back up, OBI needs more donors to meet hospital needs.
"We’re like a utility, and you don’t even think about the blood. You just assume it’s there, just like you assume electricity will be there for you," Armitage said. "We hate being like during a snowstorm, when you don’t have electricity, that’s when you start thinking about the electric company a lot, and we don’t want to be in that place where people are thinking blood shortage."
Donors who test positive will be encouraged to donate plasma for use in COVID-19 treatments.
"The convalescent plasma antibody appears to be one of the main things that’s working right now to save people that are critically ill and may be something that can help people in advance of becoming critically ill. And so, we’re very excited about that also," said Oklahoma State Medical Association President Dr. George Monks.
Test results will also provide public health data as people go back to work and resume other activities.
"Doing testing through the blood center and through blood donation, it gives you a variety of people across the state giving blood, and it gives us an idea what the prevalence is of COVID-19 within the state," said Oklahoma Secretary of Science and Innovation Dr. Kayse Shrum.
The test kits are provided by IMMY in Norman. OBI technicians will test blood samples individually, and results will be mailed to donors.
