Before the pandemic, blood drives at businesses, churches and other sites were the biggest source of donated blood in the New York area. Now, blood drives have almost completely stopped.
In April alone, blood center officials point out that donations in the area it covers dwindled to 14,000. In a typical month, they will collect twice that many.
"Starting this past Thursday, we are going into communities and schedule some mobile events. So, we only had two last week - a far cry from the 600 a month when we are under normal operations," said Andrea Cafarelli.
They hope to schedule more in the coming weeks. In the meantime, they urge donors to visit one of the 19 permanent centers on their website.
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