Reserves at the South African National Blood Service (SANBS) is running dangerously low. This is due to the very low numbers that have been collected during the year because of COVID-19 restrictions.
Usually, blood services throughout the country were able to collect donations from schools, factories and various businesses. This year, blood services solely had to rely on citizens coming into the blood bank or donating at selected malls. This has proven to be a hard task as many people fear to donate blood during the coronavirus outbreak.
Head of Donor Relations in the Eastern Cape, Elize Scheepers says people have nothing to fear.
“It is completely safe to come and donate blood. We have a very strict screening protocol. We have sanitising between every single donor, temperature checks before entering our premises, infection prevention control and PPE are all in place. So, I can assure you that it is completely and 100% safe to donate blood. We are asking people not to fear. We are desperate at this time because we do not have a lot of people willing and coming forward to donate blood.”
