Oneblood holds drives at Orange County polling locations amid donation shortage

Centers seeing fewer donations due to coronavirus

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Oneblood has partnered with the Orange County Supervisor of Elections’ offices to bring blood drives to polling locations, according to a news release.

Anyone who is at one of the various locations around the county to vote on Sunday and Tuesday will be able to donate blood with Oneblood, the center said.

On Sunday, Oneblood will be present at Alafaya Library, Southwest Library by Dr. Phillips Market Place, West Oaks Library and the Apopka Community Center.

Sunday is the last day for early voting before the Florida Democratic primary which is still scheduled to be held on March 17.

Oneblood will be in Apopka, Winter Park, Maitland, Winter Garden and Eatonville, with tentative plans of being present in the city of Belle Isle beginning at 9:45 a.m to take donations on Monday, according to a news release.

Officials with Oneblood said the need for donations is greater than ever as the country faces the COVID-19 pandemic and clinics are seeing fewer donations due to the disease.

“In the past week, OneBlood has had nearly 400 business and schools cancel their blood drives, which accounts for nearly 8000 uncollected blood donations,” said Susan Forbes, Oneblood Vice President of Corporate Communications and Public Relations.

Oneblood is encouraging anyone who is healthy and eligible to donate blood to visit www.oneblood.org to find a donor center or Big Red Bus blood drive, and said all blood types are needed.

The OneBlood site allows you to search donor centers in your area, you can find the site at this link.

Any business interested in hosting a blood drive can click this link.

To keep up with the latest news on the pandemic, subscribe to News 6′s coronavirus newsletter or go to ClickOrlando.com/coronavirus.


About the Author:

Erin began her career at News 6 as an assignment editor, then became a show producer. She is now a digital storyteller as part of the Click Orlando team.

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