Prepare to adapt: blood supply and transfusion support during the first 2 weeks of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID‐19) pandemic affecting Washington State

Abstract

BACKGROUND The first coronavirus (COVID‐19) case was reported in United States in the state of Washington, approximately 3 months after the outbreak in Wuhan, China. Three weeks later, the US federal government declared the pandemic a national emergency. The number of confirmed COVID‐19 positive cases increased rather rapidly and changed routine daily activities of the community. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS This brief report describes the response from the hospital, the regional blood center, and the hospital‐based transfusion services to the events that took place in the community during the initial phases of the pandemic. RESULTS In Washington State, the first week of March started with four confirmed cases and ended with 150; by the end of the second week of March there were more than 700 cases of confirmed COVID‐19. During the first week, blood donations dropped significantly. Blood units provided from blood centers of nonaffected areas of the country helped keep inventory stable and allow for routine hospital operations. The hospital‐based transfusion service began prospective triaging of blood orders to monitor and prioritize blood usage. In the second week, blood donations recovered, and the hospital postponed elective procedures to ensure staff and personal protective equipment were appropriate for the care of critical patients. CONCLUSION As community activities are disrupted and hospital activities switch from routine operations to pandemic focused and urgent care oriented, the blood supply and usage requires a number of transformations.

Pathogen Reduction of SARS-CoV-2 Virus in Plasma and Whole Blood using Riboflavin and UV Light

“…documented cases of transfusion transmission have been reported in the literature (13). and stated that blood donations fell precipitously as the number of cases rose exponentially (14).…”

Head and neck oncology during the COVID-19 pandemic: Reconsidering traditional treatment paradigms in light of new surgical and other multilevel risks

“…At this time, acute shortages in blood supply are anticipated necessitating appropriate patient selection along with potential modifications in preparation, planning and surgery. [27]…”

“…Teams will also need augmented training in the appropriate use of respirators and proper enhanced PPE donning and doffing [80]. Surgeons will need to develop COVID-19-specific contingencies, such as preparing for anticipated shortages in blood supply [27]. Since indicated, enhanced PPE may be incompatible with the use of loupes, an operating microscope or the DaVinci console, surgeons should test the use of these devices with enhanced PPE prior to surgery.COVID-19-Specific Postoperative ProtocolsSurgeons and institutions should also develop novel postoperative protocols for head and neck oncologic surgery patients.…”

COVID-19 pandemic and impact on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

“…Pagano et al in their report discussed the measures taken to defend blood shortage at the University of Washington, Seattle. Based on their observation, steps such as canceling the elective surgeries and procedures, requesting one unit of red blood cells at a time, rechecking on the indications of blood product order requests, and calling for more blood donation drives could help the blood centers and hospitals to tide over the COVID-19 crisis (https://fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/corona virus-covid-19-update-blood-donations) [4]. To spare the scarce resources (regular and ICU beds, personnel, blood products, etc.)…”