CRUCIAL TIME: A spring boost is vital at collection sites such as this one at the Port Authority Midtown Bus Terminal. (Photos/Thomas Hughes)
The pandemic created havoc for blood supplies nationwide.
Reliable donation sites went dark when workplaces and schools closed.
“For the past two years, there hasn’t been any excess in the system,” Andrea Cefarelli of the New York Blood Center tells the New York City News Service. “So if you don’t have the blood, you don’t have the blood.”
And the need for resupply is constant: Whole blood only lasts for 42 days from the day of donation.
Summer tends to be a slow time for the center, even in normal years. That makes the spring a critical time to boost donations, as Thomas Hughes reports in this audio segment.
