With A Nationwide Blood Shortage, Now Is The Time To Donate

January is National Blood Donor Month, and this year, both the American Red Cross and the New York Blood Center have sounded the alarm about a major blood shortage across the country. The reason? As you have probably guessed, COVID-19 plays a major role.

“We’ve experienced chronic shortages since the pandemic,” said Andrea Cefarelli, the senior executive director of the New York Blood Center in New York on Monday. “In the early days of 2020, the need also dropped because we were all in lockdown, but after 18 months, the need is up dramatically.”

The Red Cross in a recent release called it “a national blood crisis” as the country sees its worst shortage in more than a decade. Here on the East End, at least eight blood drives are scheduled over the next month.

Blood collections took a nose dive as hospitals, schools, corporations, and other organizations, like volunteer fire departments, stopped holding blood drives, Cefarelli said. In many cases, those drives have not resumed.

Cefarelli said a particularly large dropoff in donations has occurred among the 500 high schools and colleges that work with the blood center in New York State. “We are going on two-plus years, where we haven’t had first-time young blood donors,” she said.

Cefarelli said the United States needs about 33,000 pints of blood each day. During the height of the pandemic, collections dropped to as low as 16,000 pints per day, she said, and the rebound has been slow, with only about 28,000 to 30,000 pints being collected a day.

“It used to be that if one part of the country was short, there was always a surplus somewhere else,” Cefarelli said. “But right now, there is no surplus anywhere.”

Although Type O blood, which can be donated to anyone, is the most sought after, Cefarelli said all types are desperately needed.

According to the New York Blood Center’s website, nybc.org, where you can enter your ZIP code and get a list of upcoming and nearby opportunities to donate a pint for the cause, there are eight drives scheduled over the next month.

One is being sponsored by the East Hampton Lions Club at the American Legion in Amagansett from 11:45 a.m. to 7:45 p.m. on Monday, January 24. A second drive will take place on Tuesday, January 25, at the Southampton Fire Department’s Hampton Road firehouse from noon to 6 p.m. The Flanders Fire Department and the Flanders, Riverside, and Northampton Community Association will collect blood from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, January 30, at the Flanders Men’s Club on Flanders Road in Flanders.

Two local libraries have scheduled drives for Monday, January 31. You can give blood at either the Hampton Bays Public Library at 52 Ponquogue Avenue from 1 to 7 p.m., or if you live farther west, at the Center Moriches Free Public Library at 235 Main Street from 12:30 to 6:30 p.m.

The Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance Corps will hold a blood drive at the Sag Harbor Firehouse on Brick Kiln Road from 2 to 8 p.m. on Friday, February 4.

Later in the month, the American Legion will sponsor a drive at the Greenport Roller Rink at 102 3rd Street from 1 to 7 p.m. on February 17. The Riverhead Cider House at 2711 Sound Avenue in Calverton will collect blood from 1 to 7 p.m. on February 18.

Stony Brook University Hospital officials say their blood bank is encouraging anyone who is eligible to donate to do so as soon as possible.

Its blood donor center provides space for social distancing and all prospective donors are health screened at the hospital entrance. It typically takes less than an hour to donate blood, and all donations made at Stony Brook are used at the hospital.

The blood donor center is open from Monday through Saturday. Call 631-444-3662 or 631-444-2634 for information or to schedule an appointment. Walk-ins are welcome, but appointments are strongly encouraged.

Neither Stony Brook Southampton Hospital nor the Peconic Bay Medical Center have on-site donor centers, but they do encourage residents to take part in local blood drives.