Residents donate blood in Huai'an, East China's Jiangsu Province, on December 15, 2022. Photo: IC

Multiple regions from the north to the south across China have recently called on more residents to actively donate blood under strict personal protection guidelines as they face a shortage of blood caused by many factors including the epidemic impact and prolonged cold weather, which have led to a sharp drop in blood donations.

With the optimized measures and the increasing number of hospital outpatient and surgical patients, Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong, as the city with the most concentrated medical resources in the province, is also facing unprecedented pressure for blood collection and supply, the Shandong blood center said. The stock of blood group A and O have been at red alert level for several days, the center noted.

It's predicted that the gap in clinical blood use will reach an all-time peak along with the upcoming New Year and Spring Festival holidays, with the clinical operation and medical blood transfusion likely to face severe difficulties because of the extreme shortage of blood, according to the center.

The blood shortage has threatened the rescue of pregnant women and critically ill patients in some parts of the country, according to Yicai.com, a financial media platform.

In Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, the city needs about 1,200 blood donors each day to meet the demand for clinical blood use. Due to the recent rising COVID-19 infected cases as well as cold weather, blood inventory has fallen to critically low levels, according to the Guangzhou Blood Center. The center also prepared rewards for donations, including N95 facing masks and antigen testing kits for those residents who would donate their blood to people in need as a token of appreciation.

Shangqiu in Central China's Henan Province initiated a proposal on Wednesday to call on more residents to join in donating blood to overcome the difficulties together. Mianyang in Southwest China's Sichuan Province and Jincheng in North China's Shanxi Province all released the similar proposals.

China's National Health Commission issued a revised version of guidelines on blood donation on December 17, allowing close contacts, secondary contacts of COVID-19 cases as well as recovered COVID-19 patients to donate blood provided they meet certain conditions.