TOKYO: Many blood drives, in which buses with equipment for blood donation are sent to companies, schools and other places, have been canceled in Japan amid the spread of the novel coronavirus.

The Japanese Red Cross Society’s blood donation program has two pillars: about 140 permanent blood donation rooms nationwide and approximately 280 blood donation buses.

While the number of visitors to donation rooms are almost at target levels despite the pandemic, there has been a spate of cancellations of offers to accept donation buses, due to concerns about the infection spread.

“Cancellations gradually increased during the fifth wave of infections (in Japan), but they spread nationwide right away during the (ongoing) sixth wave,” said Maiko Matsushita, an official at the society’s Kanto-Koshinetsu division in eastern Japan, which handles about one-third of all donors in the country.

In February, the number of donors via blood drives came to only 92.1 percent of the target, with the dispatch of donation buses canceled at 183 venues, nearly doubling from January.

“We changed locations (of the buses) to streets, but we could not attract as many donors as expected, due to the stay-at-home trend and poor weather,” Matsushita said.

In November and December last year, the society had to utilize its blood inventories after medical institutions resumed surgeries that had been postponed.

“Although the number of surgeries has settled down since February, we haven’t been able to make up for the reduction in our blood inventories,” Matsushita said. The division has received blood from a neighboring division to keep the blood inventories sufficient for stable supplies.

Meanwhile, Fast Retailing Co. the operator of Uniqlo casual clothing stores, accepted blood drives at 22 outlets in the Kanto-Koshinetsu region in February

At one of the stores, in Tokyo’s Ota Ward, people lined up from the morning to wait their turn to donate on Feb. 18.

Among them was Hiroko Sano, a housewife living nearby who usually goes to a blood donation room in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo. “If (a donation event is held) here, I can come after leaving my child at a nursery school,” she said.

Yusuke Mori, 32, who goes to a medical vocational school in the ward, visited the donation venue because it was close to his school. “I’m happy to be of help,” Mori said.

Blood donation events at Fast Retailing’s stores are “attracting people who have not donated before,” said Yukiko Yamaguchi, an official in charge of the company’s social contribution projects. “If wanted, we’d like to hold (such events) in other areas,” she said.

JIJI Press