Lifeblood has issued an urgent call for donations, with blood supplies now critically low due to the highest hospital demand in a decade. The organisation says without a boost in coming days, reserve stocks will fall to their lowest levels for the year.
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00:00 Helen Belphanti is positive by nature and blood type.
00:06 I'd been meaning to come back and give blood for a while and I thought why not, no time like the present.
00:11 So I hopped in the car and here I am.
00:13 Hers is the sort of attitude Australian Red Cross Lifeblood needs to see more of, a lot more.
00:19 Ideally we're hoping people will come and donate this week to help us prevent a shortage next week.
00:25 With demand from hospitals its highest in a decade and fewer regular donors across the country,
00:31 the organisation has issued an urgent appeal in an effort to fill all empty seats.
00:36 There will never be a case where a donor requiring blood urgently will miss out.
00:42 It may just be a question of the less urgent people may have to wait a moment.
00:49 Some 8,000 additional blood donations are needed nationally this week, including 30 in the ACT.
00:56 Each donation saving up to three lives.
00:59 Not bad for a Monday morning, that's right.
01:02 If you're eligible, please come forward and consider giving blood. It is a vitally important time.
01:09 Fortunately donor centres haven't been impacted by the infectious triple whammy of influenza, COVID-19
01:16 and respiratory syncytical virus currently spreading through Canberra and further afield.
01:22 We're finding people aren't cancelling because of that reason. There's just a lack of habit.
01:30 29 COVID-positive patients were in Canberra hospitals last week with 146 new cases detected by PCR,
01:38 up from 75 the week before. Four people died from the virus.
01:43 The Territory has recorded more than 600 flu cases and more than 1,000 cases of RSV so far this year.
01:50 year.
01:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]