People rely on Twitter and WhatsApp groups to get blood and have reached out to other blood banks as well. In a day, blood banks used to receive 50-60 requests for blood, but they are not in a position to provide blood for even 20-30 patients.
In the districts, they call the previous donors and request them to donate blood, but in Hyderabad, we ask the patients to get donors if possible.
This shortage is attributed to the festival season with Christmas, New Year, Sankranti and Republic Day occurring at regular intervals as few donors show up to donate during the festivals. The society hopes to get more donors by February.
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Although there is some shortage every year, this time it has been more pronounced. In summer there is also such a shortage for two reasons. First of all, people are dehydrated and therefore don’t show up to donate. Second, they get a lot of donors from college camps, but when they close for summer vacation, we lose those donations.
Donation drives have also been held at IT companies, but have been halted since the start of the pandemic as companies switched to working from home. But now, with the firms reopening their offices, they hope to be able to resume the camps this year. The police department and NGOs provided a lot of help during the pandemic.
Source: Medium