There’s an urgent and immediate need for blood donations in Monmouth County, as responses to the nationwide coronavirus outbreak are severely impacting the U.S. blood supply.
Vitalant (a nonprofit, blood collection organization formerly known as Community Blood Services) is responding by offering residents of Monmouth County and surrounding areas five local, open-to-the-public donation events during April to ensure that patients have the lifesaving blood they need. The greatest need is for blood platelets -- small cells in the blood that form clots to prevent bleeding, while also helping with anemia and low blood counts – and type O-negative, the universal blood type.
FEMA has specifically identified blood donation as an “essential and integral component of the emergency support function.” Of note, coronavirus cannot be transferred through the blood. And, as always, the blood collection process is safe with no impact on the donor's immune system. Vitalant staff follows rigorous safety and disinfection protocols at its blood drives and donation centers and have always required individuals to be in good health to donate blood.
Click to view details of the five April events in Monmouth County.
For more information on the need for blood donation during the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), click here.
Vitalant also maintains four New Jersey blood centers, with hours and street addresses as follows:
As an added incentive to all who donate from Friday, April 10 through Monday, April 13, Vitalant is providing – at its mobile blood drives and New Jersey donation centers in Lincoln Park, Montvale, Paramus, and Parsippany – a $10 dollar Amazon gift card and an aluminum sports bottle. In addition, type A+ and B+ donors who donate platelets for the first time EVER will receive a $25 Amazon gift card in the mail, while all type AB male plasma donors will receive a $5 mystery gift card in the mail for every plasma donation they make during 2020 (counting is done at the end of each month).
Healthy individuals age 16 or older, who weigh at least 110 pounds, may donate blood; 16- and 17-year-olds must have proof of birth date and signed consent forms, either in English or Spanish. Donors should eat a moderate meal prior to donating, and also bring identification featuring their signature.
On occasion, last-minute changes to scheduling for a donation event will occur. As a result, it is recommended that anyone planning to donate blood at a Vitalant donation event call 201-251-3703, toll free, to confirm timing and location details. Additional information about donating blood is also available by visiting www.vitalant.org.
About Vitalant in New Jersey - A not-for-profit organization that supplies blood and blood products to hospitals in the NJ/NY region, Bergen County-based Vitalant (previously Community Blood Services) has been devoted to serving the community’s transfusion medicine needs since 1953. Donations of blood and blood products, umbilical cord blood, stem cells, and bone marrow help to join individuals, organizations, businesses, and entire communities together in partnership to help save lives.
About Vitalant - Arizona-based Vitalant is among the nation’s oldest and largest transfusion medical organizations in the U.S. Founded in 1943, its blood centers division serves some 700 hospitals across the United States. A founding member of America’s Blood Centers and the AABB (formerly the American Association of Blood Banks), Vitalant also operates biological products distribution services, a quality consulting group, and a world-renowned transfusion medicine research institute. It also is a partner in the operation of high-volume donor testing laboratories.
