Blood donations stay strong amid COVID-19 pandemic

After an initial spike in appointment cancellations when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the Canadian Blood Services put a call out to donors.

The organization has been thrilled with the response from communities to get its inventory levels back up.

But it isn’t exactly business as usual for clinics these days. Many changes have been implemented to make giving blood as safe as possible for donors.

First, upon walking through the first set of doors, donors are greeted with a smile and a series of questions about their health and recent travel to make sure they aren’t a risk of spreading the coronavirus.

Next, they’re given a squirt of hand sanitizer and told to stand at one of the previously marked locations on the floor where they wait for someone to take them to the next stage of the journey.

From there, donors are led around the corner past an overflowing recycling bin of paper where they take a seat to read, and discard, a pamphlet filled with information they may need to know. They also fill out a questionnaire with information the organization needs to know.

Once finished there, donors meet with one of the nurses in an office to discuss the questionnaire. As donors enter the office, they’re given another squirt of hand sanitizer while the nurse discards the gloves she was wearing and replaces them with new ones.

The next stage is where the magic happens. It’s where people are giving blood at every second station to ensure the patients stay the required distance from one another.

Finally, donors arrive back at the waiting area where they sit down, tell the nurse what snack and drink they would like, wait for her to put it on the table in the middle of the room, then grab it and enjoy.

According to Jennifer Dareichuk, associate director of donor relations for Saskatchewan and Manitoba, despite COVID-19 changing the process people go through to give blood, the donations remain as important and needed as they always have been.

“The need for blood is continuous. It’s pretty consistent day after day and we need donors consistently day over day in order to continue meeting that need,” she said.

“During these uncertain times, we need the public and those that want to help others to consider blood donations.”

And because of that perpetual need for blood, donors like Dale Diakow, who has donated blood 81 times in his life, aren’t going to be scared off from continuing to do so during this pandemic.

“It’s times like this that they need it more. I don’t know if donations are down or not but blood is always needed so it’s always important to have a good stock of blood in case something does happen,” he said.

Knowing there are patients like Diakow, who will come back no matter what is going on in the world, is something Dareichuk loves to see.

“It really warms my heart to see how our community has responded and to see the outpouring of support that we’ve seen in our province in other provinces,” she said.

“We have seen a lot of outreach for people who want to continue to help and it’s great to see that and we thank those who have come forward so far and we look forward to anybody else who wants to continue helping us in the coming weeks and months. It’s been amazing.”