Omicron exacerbates blood shortage
Staff shortages, the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and winter weather have combined to make an ongoing blood shortage even more serious for blood services providers in Butler County and nationwide.
“We’re at the lowest point we have been in two years,” said Kristen Lane of Vitalant, a nonprofit blood services provider. “We now have another roadblock thrown at us. In addition to not enough blood donors and the winter weather working against us, now we have a staff shortage on top of this.”
Both turnover attributed to the larger nationwide “Great Resignation” and illness from COVID-19 have affected staffing at Vitalant, she said.
“We have had a number of people who have become ill and who can’t come in, and who have had family members get sick and have been exposed,” she said. “The biggest message is that while we really need eligible individuals to donate blood, we would ask them to make an appointment for the days and weeks ahead, not just call up and say, ‘Do you have an appointment today?’ We don’t have the staff to accommodate that.”
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