A possible shortage in blood reserves at the National Blood Centre (NBC) can lead to a crisis in the maintenance of blood reserves during the prevalent COVID-19 pandemic, a senior official of the Centre said.

According to the Ceylon Today, the NBC senior official said that the current blood reserves are sufficient only for the next 14- days.

Nearly 600- 800 units of blood reserves are essential to maintain the national blood reserve requirement at the National Blood Centre.

However, the curtailment of mobile blood transfusion camps due to the recent coronavirus outbreak has caused a reduction in the number of blood reserves.

The senior official from the NBC further said that special attention must be focused on two main components with regard to blood reserves; the red blood cells and blood platelets.

Red blood cell reserves, which can be usually kept for two weeks, now cannot be kept for over 05-days due to the uniqueness of the blood platelets.

Large quantities of blood reserves which are generally collected via mobile blood donation camps have been severely affected due to the curfew imposed in the Gampaha District in which many blood donation organizations operate.

The NBC official said that measures have been taken to conduct blood donation camps in other districts.

The camps have been instructed to limit the number of participants to 50 persons per camp.

Individuals willing to donate blood can do so at regional blood centres island-wide from 08.00 a.m. to 04.00 p.m. and at the National Blood Centre from 08.00 a.m. to 06.00 p.m.