HALIFAX: Omicron and blasts of wintry weather are leaving local blood donation clinics with hundreds of empty appointments.
It’s not yet an emergency as in the United States, where in January the Red Cross declared its first-ever blood crisis as Omicron, the new, fast-spreading COVID-19 variant, slowed donations.
But Kathy Gracie, associate regional director for Atlantic Canada for Canadian Blood Services, said the next couple of weeks are critical.
“Our immediate call right now is to try and avoid our inventory getting to urgent levels,” she said. “We probably have a two-week window to turn this around and get people out and donating so we can ensure that we have enough blood. Now is the time to step up.”
At the end of January, Halifax’s Bayers Road clinic had 725 empty appointments for February. They started to fill up after Canadian Blood Services put out pleas locally and nationwide. But with only two weeks left in February, the clinic still has 454 spots to fill.
For all four Atlantic provinces, as of mid-February, the non-profit charitable organization has 3,510 appointments to fill until the end of March.
“That is a big number,” said Gracie.
She estimated the open appointments are about double a typical year.
COVID restrictions, such as social distancing, mean donors must make an appointment instead of simply dropping into a clinic. The surge in coronavirus cases in the region has made some blood clinic staffers and donors unable to go to clinics because they have COVID or must self isolate because of a possible exposure.
“With winter storms, it’s not unusual for us to have an urgent call come out, but this year with the added COVID-19 wave on top of it, it’s challenged us like never before,” Gracie said. “Many donors are affected this time and many staff members are affected this time. With this recent wave, the spread has been more than in the past, especially here in Atlantic.”
According to Canadian Blood Services, there are 3,510 appointments to fill until the end of March in Atlantic Canada.
Gracie said the last time she remembers a similar scramble was a few years ago when the length of time between donations for women was extended from eight to 12 weeks to allow for their iron levels to get replenished.
“That had a huge impact on our donor base. The majority of our donors are women,” she said.
She said the current inventory shortage is across the country and no where in particular stands out in Atlantic Canada. Of the 454 appointments open until the end of February, Halifax has 142, Moncton has 144, Saint John (a smaller clinic that’s only open two days a week) has 55, and St. John’s has 113.
The pandemic and wintry weather haven’t dissuaded Todd Bechard, who this month hit a milestone of 150 donations of whole blood, plasma, platelets and stem cells.
“I have a vague memory of donating when I was 17 or 18 when I was in school in Toronto,” said Bechard, a Halifax-based commercial-real estate consultant and investor. “I don’t think I seriously started until the early-to-mid 1990s when I worked at Maritime Life. I was organizing the clinics and we were getting 50 or 100 donors at a time.”
His son, who’s attending university in upstate New York, was diagnosed with an immune deficiency about four years ago and needs regular infusions.
But Bechard said his motivation wasn’t about someone specific.
“It was never because I knew someone who needed blood. It was just easy. I could do it. I could donate plasma once a week.”
Berchard likes to encourage others to donate, including a friend he had lunch with a couple of weeks ago.
“He said he’d donated in the past but just never thinks of making an appointment. I said, “My next appointment is coming up and you can come with me.’”
Catching COVID at a clinic should not be a concern, he added.
“Everyone’s wearing a mask. The people who work there are wearing PPE. It’s cleaner than it’s ever been.”
Canadian Blood Services is urging people who can’t make it to appointments they’ve booked to cancel them in advance so they can be call filled by others.
Vital Statistics
• One in every two people in Canada 17 or older are eligible to donate blood, plasma or platelets. Only one in 81 do
• Atlantic Canada has 33,682 active donors
• Canada has 350,999
• Atlantic Canada accounts for 6.6 per cent of the Canadian population, but whole blood collections in the region are 9.5 per cent
• In Atlantic Canada, females represent nearly 56 per cent of donors and males just over 44 per cent verus female 52 per cent and male 48 per cent for Canada as a whole
Donations by age group in Atlantic:
17-25- 11.0 per cent
26-35- 18.7 per cent
36-49- 25.2 per cent
50+- 44.8 per cent
Donations by age group Canada-wide:
17-25: 11.6 per cent
26-35: 22.2 per cent
36-49: 27.0 per cent
50+: 39.0 per cent