Blood Supply Management Amidst COVID -19 Pandemic

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The mandatory lockdown restrictions and curtailment strategies towards mass gatherings imposed by the government amid the COVID-19 outbreak, the organization of the voluntary blood donation camps were suspended and in house donations were limited leading to scarcity of blood With this we intend to assess the effect of this mass lockdown on our blood supply management in four phases [phase-I prior to the outbreak] ,phase-II[during the outbreak], Phase-III: The declining phase [Oct20-Feb21] and Phase IV: The second wave [March21-may21] MATERIALS AND METHOD : This is a retrospective study of twenty months of a blood bank supplying to a 1200 bedded multi-specialty Tertiary Care Academic Hospital in Lucknow. The study was divided into four phases namely: • Phase-I: Pre-pandemic phase [Oct’19 to Feb’20] • Phase-II: The full-blown pandemic phase [Mar 20-Sep 20] • Phase-III: The declining phase [Oct20-Feb21] • Phase IV: The second wave [March21-may21] Details of the blood units collected both in-house as well as in the VBDC’s were used for the study. The date of collection, expiry and date of issue for each packed red blood cell [PRBC] units were noted. The components prepared from the whole blood was also noted. The average In-house donations were tabulated. The various components issued month wise was also noted. The supply of Convalescent plasma in all the three phases was tabulate RESULT: The average whole blood collection pre pandemic was 1103 units (55%), 768units (51%) in pandemic phase, 1219units (61%) in declining phase and only 692units (21%) in second wave of the pandemic. In Phase I 27 VBDC collected 1153 units (58%) and in Phase III 8 VBDC collected 236units(12%) Due to restrictions in mass gatherings and lockdown enforced, the whole blood collections from Phase II and Phase IV was 93units (6.5%) and 76units (2.2%) only. In Phase I, the average In House Donation was 33.6%, In Phase II it was12%, In Phase III was 5.75% and lastly in Phase IV was 5.4% The PRBC issued on an average in the four phases was 59%, 48%, 55% and 26% respectively. Similarly the FFP issued in Phase I , II, III and IV was 62%,34%,58% and 20%. Lastly the RDP issued was 15%, 13%, 19% and 4.5% in all the various phases. CONCLUSION: Our study concluded that COVID 19 pandemic had a negative impact on total number of In-house donations, voluntary blood donation camps, blood stock inventory and transfusion recipients along with taking a major toll on health and safety of our blood bank staff as well. With little insight of the disease and everyday learning, by motivating more voluntary donors and health care workers the efficient chain of blood supply and demand can be maintained as the virus is to stay with us for a long time.