Organization of the outdoor blood donation drives amid novel coronavirus pandemic and national lockdown: An experience from a tertiary care oncology institution in India.

The conduct of blood donation drives became difficult amid novel coronavirus disease pandemic and national lockdown. Despite no restriction for the outdoor blood donation drives, voluntary blood donor organizations (VBDOs) and individual donors became apprehensive regarding the possible risk of spread of the infection during blood donation. Various confidence-building measures were taken to decrease this hesitation. Numerous preventive measures were taken at the blood bank and at the donation venue to limit the possible risk of the spread of infection. With the help of these measures, the confidence of the individual blood donors and the VBDOs was restored and multiple blood drives were organized.

Challenges in platelet inventory management at a tertiary care oncology center during the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic lockdown in India.

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been declared a pandemic by the world health organization and to limit the spread of the disease, many countries in the world, including India, had enforced a lockdown. Despite no restriction over the platelet donation activities, plateletpheresis donors became apprehensive regarding the possible risk of spread of the COVID-19 during the platelet donation and in the hospital premises. Many of them started hesitating for platelet donations. With this, the blood center started having an acute shortage of platelets. Various confidence-building steps were implemented by the blood center to promote voluntary plateletpheresis. The blood center staff and individual donors were educated to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The donor organizations and plateletpheresis donors were informed about the steps to be taken by the blood center during the donation and necessary steps for the prevention of the possible spread of COVID-19. With the help of these measures, the confidence of the individual platelet donors and the donor organizations was restored in the blood center and regular plateletpheresis was continued. These measures may also be useful to other blood centers in the COVID-19 pandemic and this experience may be useful if a similar pandemic lockdown happens in the future.