Bakers Highlight Needs for Blood Donation During Epidemic

Governor Charlie Baker on Saturday called on Massachusetts residents to donate blood, calling it a way to save lives as the state works to keep its healthcare system from being overwhelmed by the pressures of the pandemic. coronavirus.

Baker’s visit with First Lady Lauren Baker to the Red Cross donation center in Dedham was his first media appearance since Public Health Commissioner Dr. Monica Bharel announced on Friday evening that it had been tested positive for COVID-19. Bharel said she was experiencing mild symptoms and would work remotely while recovering at home.

Baker on Saturday described Bharel as a “rabid distance” who stayed away from the rest. He said he and Bharel had not been in the same building for about a week and that he was not one of the close contacts that health officials contacted after Bharel received his test results.

He again stated that he had not been tested for the virus because he had no symptoms. When the Bakers had their temperature checked before donating blood on Saturday, it was 97.7 degrees, the governor said.

Pre-donation temperature monitoring is a precaution Red Cross officials said they are taking steps to ensure safe donations, as well as social distancing efforts among donors and between donors and staff.

Lauren Baker, who sits on the Massachusetts Red Cross region’s board of directors, said hundreds of blood donations had to be collected every day to meet the needs of Massachusetts hospitals.

“If you are in good health and want to do it, don’t be afraid,” she said. “Please make an appointment. Donate blood. All efforts are helpful.”

Prospective donors can visit the American Red Cross website, complete a questionnaire and, if eligible, make an appointment at a local donation site. Anyone who has traveled to China, Iran, Italy or South Korea, or who has been in contact with someone with coronavirus, will need to defer their donation for 28 days.

With most workplaces, schools, community centers and other places that typically host blood drives now closed, Holly Grant, CEO of the American Red Cross in Massachusetts, said 300,000 units of blood were not collected nationwide due to the coronavirus. Each unit of blood can save up to three lives.

In Massachusetts, she said the number of uncollected donations “hovers between” 5,500 and 6,000.

“But as we progress, we know there will be fewer people who can donate because of the coronavirus. So we are working very hard to insure and invite these healthy people to donate because we know we are going to be in this situation now for weeks and months to come, “said Grant.

Saturday marked the 19th day of the state of emergency that Baker declared around the coronavirus. As of Friday afternoon, there were 3,240 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Massachusetts, including 35 deaths and at least 288 people hospitalized.

Baker said state action in recent weeks – unprecedented measures such as ordering the closure of schools and non-essential businesses and advising residents to stay at home – had been taken with two goals in mind .

First, he said, it is “trying to separate people from each other as much as possible” to slow the spread of the highly contagious disease. The second is to extend this distribution over a longer period of time, in the hope of keeping it within the confines of the state health system.

In hard-hit countries like Italy, Baker said, people with “solvable and curable” medical conditions didn’t get what they needed because the system was overwhelmed.

“In many ways, you donate blood, which allows the health care system to provide care for people with conditions, diseases and circumstances that are eminently treatable if the supplies are there and if they have the ability to serve them, “he said. . “I mean, it’s really a way for people to save lives, and it’s about as simple as that.”