Daily Times

Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Chairman Abrar ul Haq on Friday appealed to the people to come forward and donate blood to help save lives amid serious shortage of blood due to ongoing Covid-19.

In a statement issued to media, the PRCS chairman said pandemic affected millions of people worldwide and caused disruptions at the global level including in healthcare provision. He said thousands of people have lost lives to Covid-19 across country, however even more lives are at risk due to blood shortage, especially those suffering from leukemia, thalassemia, hemophilia, anemia or those undergoing critical surgeries or injured in road accidents.

Abrar ul Haq said the PRCS Regional Blood Donor Centre (RBDC) housed at the National Headquarters in Islamabad would usually collect 500-1000 donations in any given month, which have now fallen to around few dozen units only. He said around 90% of PRCS blood supply has been threatened by cancelation of community blood drives due to Covid-19 pandemic. He said educational institutions and industrial units have been the major source of blood collection and their closure in days of pandemic severely impacted the blood donations.

He said majority of blood donors fear that they might contract coronavirus during the blood transfusion process, calling for a serious intervention through a robust awareness campaign to ward off people’s concerns. “The COVID virus cannot be transmitted through the blood donation process or blood transfusion as respiratory viruses are not transmitted by donation or transfusion”, he added.

Abrar ul Haq said the PRCS has always been in the frontlines for arranging and donating blood and its components for the deserving patients. He said PRCS volunteers are working selflessly round the clock to ensure availability of blood for the patients and also contributing in the blood campaign through their own blood donations. “PRCS has implemented all necessary safety measure needed during the pandemic and we would like urge everybody to continue donating blood”, he added.

He said donating blood is not only a great deed but it also helps donors to stay healthy, energetic and rejuvenated all the year round. He urged the people to fulfil their human, national, moral and religious obligation and come out to save precious lives through blood donations in these testing times.