As people across the Midwest and Northeast were urged to stay indoors amid freezing cold temperatures this week, hundreds of blood drives were canceled, leading the American Red Cross to experience what it said was an “emergency need” for blood. About 450 Red Cross blood drives were canceled across 30 states this month, largely due to winter weather, the nonprofit said. An estimated 14,000 blood donations were not gathered as a result ― with this week alone accounting for 75 percent of the uncollected donations. “The need for blood doesn’t stop for winter weather,” American Red Cross spokesperson Jessa Merrill said in a press release, urging people “unaffected by this winter weather” to donate blood. “This month’s historic cold and snowy weather has caused blood drives from the Midwest to the East Coast to be cancelled and thousands of blood donations have gone uncollected.”

Source: Huffington Post January 31, 2019 19:52 UTC