Klobuchar holds roundtable on urgent blood shortage across Minnesota

(ABC 6 News) – January marks National Blood Donor month and right now, Minnesota is at a 10-year low in blood supply.

On average, blood banks have three to five days worth of product available. Now, the average amount of product available is only a days worth of supply. With the pandemic, donations have dropped 10% and in some cases, blood inventories have been reduced by 20%.

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar held a virtual roundtable with professionals from the American Red Cross of Minnesota and Dakotas Region and Memorial Blood Centers in the Twin Cities, Rochester, Duluth, and Fargo.

“What’s happening is they have to plan ahead because we’re so down on staff,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar. “So it makes it even more important that we have the blood donations so they can just plan ahead.”

Many wonder if you can get COVID by donating blood and the answer is, no. Donations are scanned for not only COVID but different antigens. People are in need of blood products or platelets every two seconds. One donation can save up to three lives.