Colds and fear of coronary infection have caused people to avoid giving blood.
- We noticed a rather sharp decline at the end of last week, especially in the metropolitan regions. We are concerned about the situation, says Karolina Blom Wiberg. She emphasizes that the situation is not yet acute, but it can quickly become very serious if it continues in the same way.
- Blood is a fresh product and only lasts for six weeks. It needs to be replenished with blood all the time. There are both chronically ill adults and children who regularly need blood and many who undergo cancer treatment need blood. Blood is also needed for surgery during accidents and after childbirth. So there is a lot of medical care that must continue as usual despite the corona virus, she continues.
What can you say to people who want to donate blood?
- We urge all healthy blood donors to come to us. Generally, there are not very many people at the blood centers right now. If you are worried that it would be crowded or you can always call the blood center and ask how it is right now. Then we do not want to bring relatives there right now. Normally, it is just nice for someone to bring along company, but now we just want the blood donor himself to come, she says.
A potential nightmare scenario would be if a large part of the Swedish population was infected by the corona virus in a short time. You must not give blood within 14 days after being ill and having a fever.
- We are, of course, afraid of how it would be a situation with many sick people at the same time. Every year when we have the flu peaks we notice that there are fewer blood donors. This year, it could be a worse situation, as people are afraid to go out, says doctor Maria Kvist.