COVID-19 Blood Supply

The Community Blood Center of the Ozarks was one of the essential businesses that remained open during the first months of the pandemic. But when schools and businesses closed, that meant CBCO couldn't send their mobile blood teams to science around Southeast Kansas, Southwest Missouri, and Northwest Arkansas. That put a severe strain on the blood supply to the 44 area hospitals that the organization supplies. Chris Pilgrim of the CBCO says that many of their operating procedures are unchanged for donating blood during the pandemic, except for one. Yeah, massive required. We've increased our sanitation conditions, which are already really stringent. You know, we operate under the guise of the food and drug administrators and we're considered a pharmaceutical manufacturer. So they were already pretty stringent, but we have doubled down on those. If you have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and have fully recovered, the CBCO asks you to consider donating convalescent plasma, which scientists are using to study the disease. For more information or to schedule appointment, visit cbco.org. For KRPS, I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierro in Web City.