Blood Bank of Delmarva declares blood emergency, asking for donors

SALISBURY, Md. –

Monday the Blood Bank of Delmarva declared a blood emergency. Officials say their supplies of all blood types are dangerously low.

“Ideally we aim for a seven-day supply of all blood types, that is at less than half, around three and a half days or so,” says Tony Prado, of the Blood Bank of Delmarva.

Blood Bank officials are crediting part of the problem to the lack of blood drives from college and high school students.

Prado says, “An astonishing 25 percent of the blood we collect daily during the school year comes from colleges and high schools. They’re very important to us, we’ve missed those since the onset of the pandemic only a handful of schools have been able to hold blood drives.”

Their new strategy has been to go to where the donors are, including a pop up location at Tanger Outlets in Rehoboth Beach, Del.

“It’s very easy to find between Hager and Osh Kosh Begosh Outlets. And we’re there two to three days a week and we have seen a number of donors come in there regularly. It’s been a successful location for us,” says Prado.

The Blood Bank has also been having a “Blood for a Brew” Summer tour. They hold events at local breweries with incentives to give blood. The next one will be held at Dogfish head in Milton this Wednesday.

If you are interested in giving blood click here. You can check out upcoming events or schedule a time to come into a donor center.

Officials are reminding everyone that even though it only takes an hour to give whole blood, staffing shortages mean wait times could be longer than normal.