The South African Blood Service is facing shortage of blood.
The national blood bank on Tuesday warned that thousands of lives were at risk as a result of a critical nationwide blood shortage.
It said its stocks dropped drastically as a result of the covid-19 pandemic.
Only less than 1% of South Africans are active blood donors.
An open call was made to eligible donors to volunteer and help save lives.
The service particularly appealed to people who falls under blood groups O and B to come forward and donate.
Spokesperson Khensani Mahlangu disclosed that at least 3,500 units of blood is needed to meet the national demand.
“We are currently experiencing a critical blood shortage, and this puts a lot of lives immediately at risk.”
“Our greatest challenge at the moment is sourcing venues for mobile blood drives and we’ve noticed that corporates, schools and universities are very apprehensive about hosting us so we are reaching out to the public to make available spaces where they feel we could host our mobile blood drives.”
Mahlangu further added that a single unit of blood could help save up to three lives.
