Coronavirus: Red Cross asks people to give blood to sustain pandemic supplies

Australian Red Cross Lifeblood has stepped up its appeal to Australians to donate blood, saying the need for blood products is ongoing.

About 900 people a day are cancelling appointments to donate blood, prompting growing concerns about future supplies as the COVID-19 pandemic wears on and Australians follow rules to stay home.

Australian Red Cross Lifeblood has stepped up its appeal to Australians to donate blood, saying the need for blood products will be ongoing throughout the crisis.

A spokeswoman said while it succeeded in finding an extra 14,000 donors since launching an appeal in mid-March, more ­donors would be needed.

“Australian patients are getting the blood and blood products they need right now, but we are seeing around 900 people a day cancelling appointments so (we) would like to remind people that the need for blood will be ongoing throughout this pandemic,” she said.

“This is very much a marathon, not a sprint; blood can’t be stockpiled so we need people to book an appointment for the coming weeks and months.”

The organisation is keen to ­assure people there have been no reports of coronavirus being trans­mitted by blood transfusion and that it has strict screening processes to ensure no one who is unwell donates blood.

The dramatic reduction in domestic flights because of the pandemic had also presented Lifeblood with a “number of challenges” to collect blood and plasma but its logistics teams were working through the problem.

Flight interruptions have also left some regional health services scrambling to maintain adequate testing and to move staff and supplies between hospitals and clinics.

In the Northern Territory, the government has been forced to charter planes to move frontline healthcare workers, medical supplies and essential equipment between the two main urban centres of Darwin and Alice Springs.

The Top End capital normally has daily services to all major interstate metropolitan hubs, plus regular shuttles used by politicians, bureaucrats and business people flying above the Stuart Highway, similar to those between Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney.

A check of booking websites on Friday revealed almost no interstate flights in coming weeks. Those still available — to Perth and Melbourne on particular days — cost $2000 or more for a round trip and involved as many as three stops in one direction.

Virgin has grounded all its domestic flights save for a single daily Sydney-Melbourne service. Qantas’s website on Friday showed no flights between Darwin and Alice Springs, or any interstate capital for the next week.

A spokeswoman for the NT Health Department said the “unexpected reduction” of Qantas flights between Alice Springs, Darwin and other capital cities had “presented logistical challenges”.