Worried about the situation, the health authorities appeal for donations. In a press release on Wednesday, the French Blood Establishment indicates that the blood reserves available for blood donation are now “below the alert threshold”, in particular due to the deconfinement, while many points of conventional collection remains inaccessible, and that sanitary measures slow operations.
“With the consequences of the coronavirus crisis, we have lost entire sections of our collection territory”, confirms at the microphone of Europe 1 Dr François Charpentier, spokesperson for the EFS. “The educational environment, vocational high schools, faculties, grandes écoles, but also the professional environment with companies and administrations, are places where we collect regularly,” he continues.
Corporate collection, for example, normally represents “30% of direct debits in Île-de-France, that’s considerable”. However, specifies François Charpentier, “one cannot collect any more in these sectors there, for questions of barrier measures, and this phenomenon will be durable”
“Our collection does not follow”
Paradoxically, the EFS finds itself in more difficulty since the end of confinement than during this unprecedented period of strict travel restriction. “The need for blood products had decreased in proportion to our collection”, specifies the doctor, “but there, the needs have returned to a normal level, and our collection does not follow. So we lose thousands of products every week “.
Calling on the French to donate blood, François Charpentier recalls that this is a “permanent effort”. And to conclude: “For the people who donated not long ago, let them come back in September. And for those who cannot do it right away, let them come in a fortnight. need”.
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