Blood shelves are slim across Mississippi and the recent wave of wintery weather has not made matters any better.
On Tuesday, Mississippi Blood Services had to shut down locations across the state and suspend donations as ice was reported to be present on roads and bridges in 76 counties. The Oxford and Cleveland centers were also closed on Wednesday due to the elements but will resume regularly scheduled operations on Thursday.
“We’re behind on a day’s worth of collections. The good news about that is that I have an amazing staff and an amazing community of donors who are willing to step up and be flexible and change our operations,” MBS CEO Christopher Swafford said on MidDays with Gerard Gibert. “We’re going to open up some of our centers extra hours this weekend. We’re sending some extra bloodmobiles out this weekend to catch up.”
To make up for lost time, the Oxford, Cleveland, and Flowood centers will be extending operations over the weekend with clinics open on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. MBS will also be expanding operations in Grenada at its mobile collection site on Saturday.
Earlier this month, officials reported a dire need for blood on shelves. A huge chunk had been taken out of the state’s blood supply with just one day’s worth of certain types remaining.
Since then, to further incentivize donations, MBS has been registering all donors from all locations or mobile drives for a chance to win a $100 VISA gift card from now until Wednesday, January 31.
As things stand, MBS needs individuals with the following blood types to donate:
- O Negative
- O Positive
- B Negative
- B Positive
- A Negative
While the supply is lower for the aforementioned blood types, Swafford is urging eligible people of all blood types to donate to address needs that can be met in each Mississippi community.
“We need our AB donors, we need our A Positive donors. We need them to come into our centers to donate platelets and plasma,” Swafford continued. “There are a lot of different products that the local patients need and each donor has a unique gift that they can give.”
For more information on where to donate and the requirements ahead of giving blood, click here.
