AUSTIN, Texas — The national blood supply is so low as the COVID-19 pandemic continues that the American Red Cross has declared its first-ever national blood crisis.
The Red Cross said Tuesday that it's seen a 10% decline in the number of people donating blood since the pandemic began. The decline coincided with the emergence of the delta variant of COVID-19 followed by the omicron variant now. Donor turnout is down, blood drives have been canceled and there have been staffing shortages, the organization said.
The Red Cross, America's Blood Centers and the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies said in a joint statement Monday that blood centers nationwide have reported less than one day’s supply of some critical blood types in the past few weeks.
You can read more about the Red Cross announcement here.
If you'd like to help, KVUE has put together a list of blood donation centers in the Austin area:
- North Lamar
- 4300 N. Lamar Blvd
- Austin, TX 78756
- Round Rock
- 2132 N. Mays, Suite 900
- Round Rock, TX 78664
- South Austin
- 3100 W. Slaughter Lane
- Austin, TX 78748
- Central Texas
- 2218 Pershing Drive
- Austin, TX 78723
- Hill Country
- 333 Earl Garrett Street
- Kerrville, TX 78028
- Greater San Antonio
- 3642 East Houston Street
- San Antonio, TX 78219
- Heart of Texas
- 9205 Oak Creek
- Woodway, TX 76712
The Red Cross said while all blood types are needed, O positive and O negative are of particular need, as well as platelet donations.
To sign up to donate, click here.
TEGNA's Central Content Team contributed to this story.
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