Red Cross Says Blood Need Still Dire In The US And Frederick County

Residents are being asked to roll up their sleeves.

Frederick, Md. (NS) – The blood shortage across the country is still dire.

Executive Director of the Red Cross Chapter for Frederick, Howard and Montgomery Counties, Curt Luthy, said donors are critically important.

“Blood levels are still low across the whole country and this is still something that we are really asking the pubic to continue to roll up their sleeves and join us in alleviating this blood crisis,” said Luthy.

He said recently it has been difficult to get donors to roll up their sleeves.

“Especially in Howard and Frederick Counties, we have seen a drop-off in people attending and showing up at their appointments,” he added.

Luthy said the Red Cross sends reminders to people who sign up to give blood to help improve attendance rates, and events like blood drives have been effective.

“We had a recent blood drive with the Frederick County Sheriff and that was a really successful one. So, we continue to work with agencies and organizations and see a lot of success even though nationwide there’s only a few day’s supply on the shelf,” he explained.

He added that blood donations are used to treat cancers as well as in emergencies.

“It’s used for people who have been in a traffic accident and they need it in an emergency situation, and so there’s a lot of things that people wouldn’t necessarily think about their blood donation going to that’s beneficial, and that’s in addition to just regular surgeries that people have and they have scheduled,” he explained.

Luthy said that donation centers are still taking measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 and you can schedule an appointment to give blood at RedCrossBlood.org or on the Blood Donor smartphone app.