(UPDATED 3.26.2020)
Given close quarters within the bloodmobiles, we are cancelling or moving our blood mobile drives to indoor locations during this pandemic. Therefore we have cancelled the blood mobile unit drive on Tuesday, March 31 in Brazil Indiana at the YMCA and changed the location for the blood mobile drive on April 1st in Terre Haute Indiana to The Meadows Banquet Room which is located at 2800 poplar Drive. The banquet room is located next to Royal Mandarin on the first floor of the Meadows. We have scheduled two drives at the Meadows for Wednesday, April 1st from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and on April 20 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. We are working to find additional community drives in the area and will update as necessary.
ESSENTIAL ACTIVITY As organizations limit all “non-essential activity”, your blood drive is an essential activity, as outlined by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is an imperative part of community health and public preparedness plans to maintain blood collection during this challenging time to ensure patient survival. For more from the CDC on the urgent need for blood collection, watch this video.https://vimeo.com/397519259
To also help ensure social distancing – we are encouraging appointments – please schedule your appointment by visiting RedCrossBlood.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS or use the Red Cross Blood Donor App
The Red Cross is committed to blood drive safety
“We know that people want to help, but they may be hesitant to visit a blood drive during this time. We want to assure the public that blood donation is a safe process, and we have put additional precautions in place at our blood drives and donation centers to protect all who come out.
The Red Cross has implemented new measures to ensure blood drives and donation centers are even safer for our donors and staff, including:
- Checking the temperature of staff and donors before entering a drive to make sure they are healthy.
- Providing hand sanitizer for use before the drive, as well as throughout the donation process.
- Spacing beds, where possible, to follow social distancing practices between blood donors.
- Increasing enhanced disinfecting of surfaces and equipment.
At each blood drive and donation center, Red Cross employees already follow thorough safety protocols to help prevent the spread of any type of infection, including:
- Wearing gloves and changing gloves with each donor.
- Routinely wiping down donor-touched areas.
- Using sterile collection sets for every donation.
- Preparing the arm for donation with an aseptic scrub.
There is no data or evidence that this coronavirus can be transmitted by blood transfusion, and there have been no reported cases of transfusion transmission for any respiratory virus including this coronavirus worldwide.
